


The Atlesian Ball

by ManlyQuail



Series: Ilia AU [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Atlas Academy, Atlas Ball (RWBY), Bmblb, Closure, F/F, F/M, Light Angst, M/M, Nuts and Dolts - Freeform, Primsatic Ponytails, Renora, School Dances, Spoilers: Volume 7 (RWBY), Volume 7 (RWBY)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 46,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24407611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ManlyQuail/pseuds/ManlyQuail
Summary: With their newly acquired licenses and a brief moment of peace with council elections coming up, Ironwood has sent out invitations for a special event to honor the hard work and effort being put forth by all those staying at Atlas. To students, guests, and soldiers alike he extends the offer to attend a formal ball to have some R&R in these times of tension. As members of Team RWBY and the rest of their group pair off, everyone is given some time to relax and contemplate what got them there, as well as what's to come next. This story takes place approximately around the time of episodes 4/5 of Volume 7.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Ilia Amitola/Weiss Schnee, Jaune Arc/Ciel Soleil, Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie, Penny Polendina/Ruby Rose, Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi
Series: Ilia AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1762576
Comments: 30
Kudos: 56





	1. Invitation

Brilliant orange light bathes the snowy landscape as the sun begins to rise above the horizon. The highest towers of the brilliant Atlas Academy are illuminated as the shadows are slowly wiped away by the increasing levels of light. As glass windows dotting the structure reflect the incoming lights, the towers practically sparkle as room after room is flooded with warmth and color. As more and more of the building begins to light up, the entire structure is already abuzz with activity as students, soldiers, and professors begin to wake up and enter routines that have been hammered into their bodies for years. However, one such section of the academy finds itself providing accommodations for a new batch of guests that have not yet acclimated to the high intensity rhythms of student life in Atlas quite yet.

As the sun crawls across the marble floors of their dormitory, a team of women is woken by a rhythmic series of knocks at their door. While they hadn’t quite fallen into a perfect routine yet, they had become accustomed enough to the workings of the school that each of the four residing within tapped their knuckles against the walls of their beds in an automatic response to the wake up call. There was some shuffling, both on the inside and outside of the dorm room, and an envelope was gently slid beneath the doorway.

Three of the girls attempted to bury themselves deeper beneath the blankets, groaning and clutching their covers tight as they pulled them over their faces in an attempt to block out the ever increasing light levels. The fourth girl, however, cheerfully sat up without hesitation. Yawning softly with a hand placed delicately over her mouth, the girl combed through the length of her snow white hair and smiled towards the sunrise.

Standing from her bed, Weiss Schnee nodded confidently to herself as she turned to face the covers and gently began to tuck everything back into place. It took mere seconds, the actions themselves a practice she’d believed in since she was a girl, and she couldn’t help but chuckle slightly as she looked at the disorderly state the beds of her teammates were in. The amusement faded as sounds of the academy caught her attention, and Weiss took a few steps from the beds to glance out the window across the grounds of the academy. Students and soldiers were already forming marching orders as departing ships were replaced just as quickly with empty transports standing by for more troops. Her eyes scanned upwards to the sky, where massive warships hovered in place above the city, and she let out a heavy sigh.

Turning to the mirror, she caught herself frowning, and quickly adjusted her expression to a more presentable one. Weiss then carried out her usual morning routine in silence, the only other sound heard was the occasional shuffling of sheets or the adjusting of a pillow as the rest of her team, Team RWBY, attempted to sleep in.

Stepping from the washroom a short time later, feeling ready for the rest of the day, Weiss was finalizing the braids in her hair when she noticed the envelope had been slid under the team's door. Tilting her head as she flipped the ponytail to fall down her back, she crouched down to pick it up and saw ‘ _ Team RWBY _ ’ scrawled neatly across the front of the otherwise plain letter. Normally such a message would be directed towards the team leader, however as she gave a sideways look towards the still curled up Ruby she knew that her youthful leader would have little to no interest in reading the message. Turning it around, tearing through a wax Atlas crest sealing it shut, Weiss withdrew the letter and read the contents to herself.

“Hey, wake up! We have mail.” Weiss’s eyes continued to skim across the paper, and despite the feigned expression she’d been wearing earlier, a genuine smile had made its way onto her face. Turning back to her team, she watched as three heads lifted slowly from their covers and winced as the outside light made contact with their eyes.

The first to rise from an upper bunk was a fierce blonde known as Yang Xiao-Long, the heaviest hitter of the team. Propped up on her left arm, Yang attempted to keep the sun from her purple eyes with her right, an arm that had been replaced with a fully functional combat prosthetic after an incident that had resulted in its loss at their previous place of study. When Weiss had first seen the replacement limb, it had only reminded her of the pain of the day the real arm had been lost, but after months of adjustment the entire team treated it as if it were the real deal.

Beneath her bunk a pair of cat ears could be seen poking out from the white border of the default blue sheets provided to students, before the yellow eyes of a faunus girl with short black hair dared to expose herself to the light. Blake Belladonna’s eyes were far more sensitive to light than the others, and while they were capable of seeing in the dark, sudden exposure to such bright light caused her to quickly retreat back beneath the covers.

Finally, and to nobody's surprise, the final head of the team began to lift slowly from the bed. Black hair tipped with crimson highlights sprung forth as a silver eyed girl glanced in Weiss’s direction, mumbling about wanting a few more minutes of sleep. The girl stretched and yawned before attempting to roll back over. Unfortunately for Ruby Rose, she’d chosen the wrong direction to roll, and clumsily toppled out from her upper bunk. Tumbling downwards, Ruby found herself spawned across the floor at Weiss’s feet, who looked down with an amused expression.

“Uhh, good morning Weiss!” Ruby chuckled awkward and Weiss couldn’t help but chuckle back as she rolled her eyes. “What’s that?”

Ruby pointed towards the paper in Weiss’s hand, tilting her head curiously from her crumpled position on the ground.

“It’s an invitation to-”

Weiss didn’t even have the chance to finish her sentence before a blur of rose petals flew past her. Blinking, she realized that the letter had been snatched away from her, and she watched as an eager Ruby began to spout endless ideals about what the message could be about.

“Oooh, an invitation! To what? An epic Grimm fight? A ceremony in our honor? A party? Oh! Maybe another mission with the Ace Ops!?” Ruby’s eyes were skimming line after line, her energy fading gradually as she read further and further down the invitation. Before Ruby had had the chance to finish reading Weiss snatched it back away from the other girl’s hands, coughed to clear her throat, and began reading it out loud to the entire room.

“ _ Dear Team RWBY,  _

_ As a reward for the efforts put forth by soldiers, students, and guests alike in this time, Atlas Academy will be hosting a formal ball in order to provide some well deserved rest and relaxation to all members of the academy. This event will occur in one week on Friday the 12th at 6 PM sharp. The ball will begin with a speech before live music, dance, refreshments, and other forms of entertainment are provided to all who attend. Formal ware is required as is a dance partner or a date. While Atlas colors are encouraged, they are not required. Please arrive approximately an hour early so that we may provide ample seating and note an approximate headcount. More information can be obtained in a memo provided to all officers and team leaders should one require it. We hope you see you there.  _

_ Best Wishes, General Ironwood.” _

As Weiss finished the letter, the rest of the team had already crawled from their bunks and finished stretching out. Yang’s lips formed up into a smile as her eyes flicked to Blake at the mention of requiring a date, to which Blake returned the gaze with a blush in her cheeks. Weiss gave a knowing grin as she looked between the two before turning her attention to Ruby who seemed rather deflated when compared to the burst of energy she’d had moments ago.

“It’s a dance!?” With a heavy sigh Ruby slowly lowered to her knees before falling over onto her side and pouting.

“It’s not just _a dance_ Ruby. A formal event held at Atlas Academy is one of the most impressive invitations someone can get! The swirling colors as couples dance in unison to the elegant medleys of classical music passed on for generations, the opportunity to speak with some of the most influential members of the Atlas military… The list goes on! Can’t you at least  _ pretend _ to be excited about this?” Weiss frowned as she looked down at the still unenthused mess that was Ruby.

“We already know the General, who more influential do we need to know? And don’t even get me started on classic music!” Ruby let out a gagging sound as Yang chuckled and squatted down beside her younger sister, giving her a gentle pat on the head.

“It’ll be okay sis, they said there’d be refreshments and other forms of entertainment right? You might not even have to do any dancing at all!” Glancing up to Yang with the tiniest hint of hope, Ruby’s eyes drifted slightly to Blake as the faunus girl came and crouched beside her as well with an encouraging smile.

“They said more information would be sent to the scrolls of all the team leaders, why don’t you check yours? Maybe it’ll elaborate on what sorts of entertainment and refreshments they mean.” Ruby nodded slowly and withdrew her scroll from the pocket of her pajamas. With the push of a button the display of the device appeared and glowed a bright blue. She noted the newest message it had received and opened it to find a finely put together memo detailing the schedule of the nights events. Just looking at it made her feel exhausted, and her eyes glossed over as she read over the details regarding the speech and the list of ‘classic’ music that would be played with the expected dance to accompany each song. The more she read, the more she wanted to ditch and do something else.  _ Anything _ else. Until she got to the halfway point of the list that is.

Songs began to sound less classical and seemed to be more modern.  _ Grimm Slayerz _ sounded more like a punk rock band than a classical group, and there were no longer lists of expected routines to perform. Furthermore the entire section of refreshments had been detailed out, and she began to immediately drool as she read over all the options. Listed were at least a dozen different kinds of cakes, cookies in every flavor, 9 varieties of punch, and numerous other treats that, while having fancy names, Ruby assumed were also some form of sugary delight. Beyond the list of food, there was a list of games and activities, none of which sounded like the things she’d expected.

“A shooting gallery using our  _ actual  _ weapons, an obstacle course, weight lifting competitions… Weiss what is all this?” Ruby looked up at Weiss as she read off the list, and Weiss merely shrugged, completely unfazed by the list.

“What did you expect? Atlas personnel must be at their best at all times. An event like this turns into the chance to showcase their skills as a soldier or Huntsman, so naturally the activities would provide that opportunity. It’s sort of like the Vytal Festival but on a smaller scale.” Weiss grinned down at the sudden enthusiasm displayed by her younger leader as the girl’s eyes seemed to sparkle.

“That actually sounds like a lot of fun.” Blake chuckled as she rose, Yang standing up beside her, and the two helped Ruby stand as well before a knock at the door drew the groups attention.

“Come in.” Weiss spoke to the door inviting whomever was at it to enter. Despite not knowing who it was, she considered Atlas as safe a place as any and imagined the person on the other side would be a friend or at the very least a soldier who needed them for something. As luck would have it, this individual was both.

“Sal-u-tations!” The door gently swung open as a tall girl with back length curly red hair and green eyes let herself in. Breaking the threshold she gave a cheery smile and provided a salute to her fellow students as single strand of hair bobbed freely atop her head.

“Penny!” Ruby dashed across the room to give the girl a hug, which was greeted with a powerful embrace that lifted Ruby off the ground and caused her to briefly struggle for air. After some brief squirming to free herself, she was gently placed down by her still grinning companion.

“Good morning Ruby! To you as well Weiss, Yang, Blake!” Penny nodded her head politely to each as she spoke their names in turn before breaking into an ever wider smile. Her eyes looked towards the paper in Weiss’s hand before glowing briefly as she analyzed the text, formatting it in a more presentable fashion in her mind despite reading it at a large angle. “I see you’ve received your invitation! Isn’t it exciting?”

With glowing eyes, Penny displayed one of the few traits that betrayed her true nature: that of a synthetic individual with a robotic body capable of generating a living aura. As her eyes dimmed, she looked between the eager faces of her companions, but before she could speak again she detected another small group of individuals approaching from out in the hall and turned to greet them.

“Good morning everybody! Oh it’s so great for us all to be together like this again and not in the middle of the usual life or death situation we tend to find ourselves in!” Penny stepped to the side as she turned to face a trio of individuals stepping into the doorway with cheery expressions of their own.

“Nice to see you too Penny, and everyone else of course. So did you guys get this weird invitation too?” With spikey blonde hair, blue eyes, and an awkward smile, Jaune Arc, leader of Team JNPR, stepped through the threshold of the dorm with his two remaining team members behind him.

“This is going to be AWESOME!” Not even attempting an indoor voice, Nora Valkyrie screamed to the ceiling before her shoulder length red hair flicked side to side as her aqua eyes darted between everyone present. “Guess who my date is! Go on, just try and guess!”

“It’s-” Raising a hand to answer the question behind her, Nora’s own hand shot out and clasped firmly over the mouth of a tired looking man with braided black hair containing a single pink highlight. His pale pink eyes widened in surprise before returning to their neutral state as he realized he wasn’t going to get the opportunity to speak. Instead he looked helplessly between the members of Team RWBY who all looked between each other, then Ren, and then Nora.

“Is it-” Weiss, deciding to state the obvious, went to state her guess before Nora once more cut off anyone else from speaking.

“It’s Ren!” Nora jumped gleefully before latching onto Ren’s arm protectively and looking between everyone else. “That means I’ve got dibs, and all you hussies can just back right off my man!” Nora’s eyes glared between everyone present as if she was expecting someone to object, but nobody even attempted to challenge her.

“Well I guess if we’re already picking partners…” Yang smirked slightly as she turned her attention from Ren and Nora to the faunus girl beside her. “Blake, would you do me the honors of being my date to the ball?”

With a dramatic bow, extending a hand to take Blake’s, Yang placed a gentle kiss on the surface of the girl’s pale skin with a grin. Looking up, their eyes met, and Blake felt her cheeks flush before nodding in agreement.

“I’d love that.” Blake continued to smile softly at Yang as the other girl did a dramatic fist pump.

“Awesome! Now that that’s settled, what about the rest of you?” Yang, satisfied with the answer, remained holding onto Blake’s hand as she stood from her bow and looked to the rest of the group.

“Well actually I was wondering if-” Jaune rubbed the back of his head awkwardly and took a step towards Ruby, his cheeks a little red as he nervously avoided eye contact. Before he could finish speaking however, Penny pushed past him without a second thought and took Ruby’s hands into her own.

“I think I’d like to go with Ruby if that’s okay!” Penny grinned eagerly as she watched Ruby shuffle nervously, paying no mind to the series of incoherent words suddenly pouring from the girl’s mouth. “We have so much to catch up on! I’d very much love to take this opportunity to hear all about your adventures after Beacon! I’ve only heard so much regarding the events after the Fall, and I’ve got so much to share with you as well about my time here in Atlas and Mantle!”

“Oh, I mean sure Penny! I guess I could be your...date” Ruby stumbled through the word  _ date _ and Penny tilted her head slightly as she sensed the hesitation.

“Does being considered my date bother you? If so we can always attend with other people and continue to talk to one another through the event. That would be acceptable as well!” Penny continued to smile, though there was a hint of dejection in her voice as she took a step back. Attempting to withdraw her hands however, she found that Ruby was holding on tightly and pulled them back.

“No! I mean, I don’t mind at all! It’s just, it sounds so formal you know?  _ Date… _ I mean what even is that anyways?” Ruby chuckled awkwardly as Penny simply stared.

“A date is defined as a shared social occasion in which two individuals participate in one or more activities together in either a friendly or romantic fashion. It’s also something that I would very much enjoy doing with you. Do you not feel the same way?” The smiled faltered a little more as Ruby’s cheeks turned bright red and she squeezed tighter onto the girl’s hands.

“I mean, I do, so like we can, but like, I didn’t think you knew, or like, I mean I didn’t know that you felt…” Ruby started to wobble as her mind spiraled and Penny simply chuckled at what she perceived as a yes before she pulled the girl in for another tight embrace. Picking her up off the ground as she squeezed the girl hard enough for an audible  _ pop _ of her back to be heard. Penny then set Ruby back down and the girl let out a gasp as she fought for air.

“Well if you two are going together, then maybe…” Jaune turned from Ruby and Penny, his eyes passing across the other duos of Yang and Blake as well as Ren and Nora to the last option he had: Weiss. 

“Hey, did you guys get this weird letter this morning?” With pursed lips and pale blue eyes reading back over a near identical letter to the one Weiss had in her hands, a girl with a waist length brown ponytail approached the group. Scratching the back of her head in confusion she opened her mouth to say more, but froze as she looked at the massive gathering of people.

“Perfect timing!” With a smile, Weiss approached the newcomer who was still frozen in place, and gave a polite curtsy. “Ilia, it would be my pleasure if you would be willing to accompany me to the ball next Friday.”

Ilia’s eyebrows raised in surprise as she continued to process the situation, before shaking her head to snap her out of the trance she’d fallen into.

“Of course, yeah! I mean uhh…” Ilia coughed and did her best to stand up straight, before offering a similar gesture to the one Weiss had provided her. “Nothing in the world would make me happier than being able to attend this event by your side Weiss.”

The pair smiled at each other, Weiss stepping forward and planting a gentle kiss on the girl’s cheek. Across Ilia’s dark complexion, several darker patches began to shift to a pinker coloration, showing the chameleon faunus trait that set her apart from the average person.

“Okay then uhh…” Jaune bit his lip, anxiously looking between all the pairs and realizing he was the odd one out. “Well wait, who am I supposed to go with then?”

“Huh, I guess we do make an odd number don’t we?” Yang pondered for a moment before her eyes lit up with a wicked grin. “You could always take Maria! I’m sure she kills it on the dance floor being a legendary Huntress and all!”

“Seriously Yang, not helping.” Jaune frowned slightly as he tried to think of anyone else he could ask. Maria was definitely out of the question for sure as she was still down in Mantle, having taken it upon herself to train Oscar while her eyes continued to get worked on. With Penny spending more time in Atlas the two of them had promised to keep an eye on things and report anything out of the ordinary. The only other traveling companion they had was Qrow and Jaune dared not even consider that as an option.

“Actually, I may have a solution!” Penny suddenly turned from Ruby who had regained her composure and took an eager step towards Jaune. “Come with me!”

Without even a chance to protest, Penny had placed a firm grip onto Jaune’s arm and he felt the crushing pressure of her mechanical appendage lock in place.

“Wait, where are we GO-” Jaune had furrowed his brow in confusion, trying to take a hesitant step back, when Penny’s boots began to glow a neon green down their back and raised her several inches off the ground as bright green jets powered up. Moments later the pair vanished in a puff of smoke as Penny’s rockets blasted the pair down the halls of the Academy, Jaune’s screaming voice fading into the distance.

“Huh, I wonder who she had in mind.” Blake leaned out of the dorm and glanced into the smokey hallway with a raised brow.

“Could you imagine if it was Winter?” Yang snorted and quickly tried to hide her laughter as Weiss shot her a glare.

“A date with Winter would be of the highest honor you know, but I doubt she’d say yes to a guy like Jaune. Or to anyone really…” Weiss pondered the thought for a second, wondering if officers of Atlas would be attending as well and what requirements would fall upon them. In her eyes, there wasn’t a man or woman on earth worthy of Winter’s grace, but her thoughts were interrupted as she felt a hand tugging at her sleeve.

“Hey Weiss, can I talk to you for a second?” Ilia spoke in a near whisper as she pulled Weiss from the rest of the group. 

“Hmm? Is everything okay?” Returning to the present, she gave a look of concern to her nervous partner who was glancing between Weiss and the rest of the group.

“I uhh, I don’t know how to dance. Like, at all… Are you sure you’d want to go to an event as big as this with someone like me? If all these influential people are going to be there like you said, shouldn’t you take someone a little more, you know, suitable?” Frowning to herself, Ilia’s eyes wandered from Weiss and down towards the floor as anxiety flooded her system. At first she’d been overwhelmed by the invitation and the chance to attend something so normal as a school dance with Weiss, but the more she thought about the way things might proceed the less and less excited she felt with feelings of dread and fear replacing her enthusiasm.

“Ilia…” Weiss chuckled slightly and gently raised Ilia’s head up with her hand, caressing her cheek and smiling as their blue eyes met. “There isn’t a single being on this planet that I wouldn’t want by my side for this I assure you. Besides, I’d like to think of myself as an excellent teacher. I’m sure with a little bit of practice we’ll have you dancing gracefully across the hall in no time.”

“Really?” Ilia still wasn’t entirely convinced in her own abilities to get through this, but something about the look Weiss was giving her told her it would all work out. Nodding slowly, she took a deep breath as she fought through the knots in her stomach.

“If the two of us can take on an entire group of rebels, the media, and even my  _ father _ together, I’m sure we can handle a dance no problem. Trust me, we’ll get through this together.” Weiss could see the worry in Ilia subside as the other girl managed another smile.

“Yeah, you’re right. Thank you Weiss, I know you’ll be a perfect instructor.” Ilia’s smile grew at the thought of learning to dance with Weiss, her mind becoming filled with thoughts of the numerous dances she’d seen other couples performing back when she attended Atlas Academy herself. Stepping forward she gave the other girl a tight hug. Weiss happily returned the gesture, glad that Ilia seemed to have regained some of her confidence.

“Now that you mention it Weiss…” The two had been so caught up in their moment together they hadn’t realized the rest of the room had fallen silent. “I don’t really know how to do any of these fancy dances either.”

Behind her, Yang had snatched Ruby’s scroll from the girl, scrolling through the memo with one hand and keeping her younger sibling at bay with the other. Ruby flailed and fought to try and get the device back before the words registered with her as well, causing her to stop leaning into Yang and instead to suddenly drop straight down due to the angle at which she was standing.

“Actually, me either! Can you teach me too?” Ruby popped back up in an instant, and Weiss could feel the stares of every single person on her. Furrowing her brow, she let out a heavy sigh.

“Alright, who here has no idea how to perform the dances listed on the memo and requires my assistance?” Weiss looked between the group, who all paused for a moment in contemplation. Then, all at once, everyone raised a hand. Weiss sighed once more, placing her palm against her face. “Oh dear, I was afraid of this. Well, I can’t have any of you making fools of yourself in front of the entire academy. Anymore than you already do that is…”

“Soo, you’ll teach us then?” Nora took an eager step forward, dragging Ren alongside her.

“I suppose I don’t have much choice do I? Lessons will begin at 2 and I’m going to work each of you until you can do these dances in your sleep, got it? No complaining, no quitting, and no goofing around, understood?” Despite speaking to the whole group, Weiss mainly directed her instructions to Ruby, who gave a salute to her new dance instructor.

“You’re the best Weiss.” Yang approached, giving Weiss a pat on the back, and a series of agreements spread through the group as everyone thanked her for her aid.

“I am, aren’t I?” Weiss smirked to herself, feeling a bit of pride with her new teaching position, before blushing at the sudden contact of lips to her cheek. Turning her head, she could see a softly smiling Ilia looking up towards her, and without a downwards glance the two interlocked their fingers.

“Well, this was certainly an unexpected way to start the morning now wasn’t it?” Blake chuckled as she stepped back in from the door and moved to Yang’s side.

“Quite.” Ren nodded, speaking as if he had more to share, before falling silent. Nora looked towards him with a nervous look and went to say something herself, when the sound of growling filled the room. All eyes immediately fell on Nora as a second sound followed the first, and she looked down at her stomach.

“Well guys I’d love to stay and chat, but these Atlas types are very serious about when breakfast starts and when it ends, and I am  _ not _ taking dance lessons on an empty stomach soo…” Nora walked as she spoke, dragging Ren with her towards the door. “Bye!”

In a flash the pair disappeared, Nora screaming loudly as Ren mentioned the time to her, and the rest shrugged and laughed it off.

“Breakfast does sound pretty good right now. We’ll get ready and meet you guys there okay?” Yang looked between Ilia and Weiss, the two girls having already gotten dressed and prepared for the morning, and then between herself, Blake, and Ruby who all remained in their standard Atlas pajamas. The plain white t-shirts with an Atlas logo was far from any of their styles, though Blake herself didn’t mind the black and gray pajama bottoms that went with them.

“Sounds good, but don’t take too long. Nora’s right about the punctuality of Atlas. Even a second late to breakfast and you’re hungry till lunch so no dilly dallying.” Weiss checked the time on her scroll, noting they still had a little bit before breakfast ended, and looked to Ilia as Yang and Blake disappeared into the washroom with Ruby slowly inching back towards the beds. “Shall we?”

“We shall.” With a grin, Ilia nodded to Weiss and the pair headed towards the cafeteria hand in hand.


	2. Settling In

“Penny, I know you said you had a solution to my lack of a date, but shouldn’t we be like, you know, where there’s people? Maybe, more specifically, in a place like the cafeteria?”

Jaune gestured with both arms out towards the empty courtyard in front of the steps the pair were currently seated on. His stomach growled as he finished his thoughts and he frowned to the girl that had rocketed him across half the campus only to have the two sit alone in a shady spot outside the dormitories. Looking at Penny, Jaune simply watched as the giddy girl stared out to the courtyard without paying him any attention. With a defeated sigh, Jaune slouched against the steps and did his best to avoid thinking too much about food as the minutes ticked by.

“Precisely on schedule!” Penny reached over to Jaune, clamping onto his arm once more, and lifted him upright as she stood. Glancing down towards the bottom of the stairs, the pair watched as a dark skinned girl adjusted a blue beret and made her way up the steps. “Sal-u-tations Miss Ciel! Do you have a minute to talk?”

“Oh, Penny!” Stopping for a moment in surprise, the girl’s blue eyes flicked between Jaune and Penny before she lifted a fingerless gloved arm to glance at a silver watch on her wrist. With her other hand, she brushed navy blue hair from her face to reveal a golden emblem of an oval surrounded by four circles on her forehead. Glancing back up to Penny she nodded politely and took a more neutral stance on the step below them. “I have approximately 2 minutes and 13 seconds to spare. What did you need ma’am?”

“Well, I was hoping to introduce you to my friend here, Ja-”

“Jaune Arc, formerly of Beacon Academy and leader of Team JNPR. Recently given your official huntsman license as well I believe.” Before Penny could even finish her introduction, Ciel had turned her attention towards Jaune and recited off a list of details. “I’ve heard positive reports of your combat exercises with the Ace Ops despite your somewhat questionable transcripts.”

“I can uhh, I can explain those...?” Jaune gave an awkward chuckle as he nervously rubbed the back of his head.

“Perfect! Now that introductions are out of the way, I wonder if you would perhaps be interested in attending the upcoming Atlas Ball with Jaune!” Penny’s voice was filled with excitement as she looked between the pair, to which Jaune gave her a shocked look in response.

“Wait, Penny we hardly kno-”

“Very well.” Having gone to protest, Jaune had intended to explain that it seemed almost rude and rushed to suddenly introduce two people and request they attend an event so formal as the Atlas Ball together, when Ciel’s response caught him entirely off guard.

“Wait what?” Jaune glanced at the girl who gave him a once over and a nod.

“It only seems efficient, does it not? By obtaining a partner as quickly as possible we’re given the maximum amount of time to work through specific details regarding the event. Therefore, I hereby accept your proposal, and I will be in contact with you throughout the week to develop our itinerary for the evening of the event.” With a polite bow Ciel checked the watch on her wrist once more before nodding to the two of them. “Now then, I’m afraid I must be off. I wish you both a pleasant day.”

Without another word Ciel jogged up the steps to wherever her next destination was, and Jaune could only gawk as he watched her go.

“Sen-sational! Now you’ve nothing to worry about when it comes to whom you’ll be attending the ball with!” Penny was cheerfully bobbing in place, an ecstatic smile across her face as she looked to Jaune. Despite her personally high spirits, Jaune was far from matching her enthusiasm.

“I mean, is that okay? I hardly know her! Although, she does seem to know a weird amount about me.” Frowning slightly, Jaune gave another glance up the empty steps wondering if anything about this was appropriate. “Shouldn't we have gotten to know each other even a little bit before just jumping into something like this? How do you know we'll even get along?”

“I think it’ll be just fine! You two will get along splendidly I assure you! I spent a great deal of time with Miss Ciel leading up to the Vytal Festival and can guarantee you that you’ll certainly enjoy your time together.” Despite Jaune’s concerns, Penny seemed more than confident that the pair would work out. At the very least he felt a little better knowing he’d be able to attend with the rest of their group, but he wondered what sorts of things Ciel had in mind for their schedule.

“Well, if you’re sure.” With a shrug, Jaune felt his stomach growl slightly. “Oh man, I totally forgot about breakfast! Do you think we’ll make it back in time?”

“I can assure you that we’ll arrive with time to spare!” Penny grinned as she reached out to latch onto Jaune’s arm once more, the boys eyes going wide as he instantly realized what was about to happen.

“Wait no, Penny I can walk just FI-” Once more, before Jaune had any chance to protest, Penny’s rockets kicked in and blasted the pair across the campus towards the cafeteria.

\---

“It’s weird being here again…”

Ilia and Weiss had taken seats within the cafeteria, and, unable to find Nora and Ren, had selected their own table each with a picked out tray of food sitting before them. While Weiss had taken to gentle and slow dining, properly slicing through meats with her knife and using a variety of forks based on what she was eating, Ilia had spent most of the time prodding the food around her plate with a spoon and staring at the other tables.

The instant the pair had walked in there was a change in the atmosphere as several sets of eyes fell on them, otherwise loud voices dropping to hushed whispers as everyone stared. Ilia had become self conscious of her faunus heritage and began scooting closer to Weiss in search of comfort. As she turned to look at her partner, she was impressed with Weiss’s calm demeanor despite the attention directed at the couple.

“How are you managing to eat so calmly with all these eyes on us?” Whispering under her breath, doing her best to maintain her composure, Ilia's eyes continued to wander as she spoke.

“You get used to it eventually.” Weiss shrugged as she set her silverware down and gently dabbed at her lips with a napkin. “Being a Schnee I’ve always had eyes on me. Be it walking through public, attending a formal event, or even putting on a performance, eyes have never  _ stopped _ following me. Besides, after the speech we gave after announcing our involvement is it any wonder people are taking interest? A Schnee dating a faunus is certainly going to be a subject of gossip and debate for quite a while.”

Weiss gave a soft smile to Ilia, the faunus girl doing her best to focus solely on the girl at her side, but even in her periphery she could still see people whispering about them. Ilia turned back to her food, attempting to take a bite, before letting out a defeated sigh and accepting her loss of appetite.

“I almost wish I was back at gunpoint in front of a bunch of angry rebels than sitting in this cafeteria full of these…” Ilia felt her fists clench in her lap, thinking back to her times in Atlas years prior.

“Atlas types?” A hand gently covered the fists Ilia had formed, and she turned back to a smirking Weiss.

“You know what I mean. Even after all this time and all the attempts at peace around the world, there’s still so much discrimination against the faunus here in Atlas. Why can’t they just get with the times already?” Her eyes narrowed as she gave a cold stare to a group of girls not far from them. Immediately they looked away, doing their best to avoid her gaze, before Weiss turned her face back to look at hers.

“Listen, you can’t let the thoughts of others bother you so much. Believe me, I used to care more about my family name than anything, but thanks to Winter and the friends I made at Beacon I’ve learned to forge my own path regardless of the thoughts others might have. Even after seeing how my family reacted when Winter distanced herself from the Schnee name I knew that it was the same path I wanted to follow.” Despite what she’d hoped would be an encouraging message, Weiss could see Ilia wasn’t entirely convinced. Even with their faces as close as they were, Ilia’s eyes continued to drift to the sides to stare at groups of students. “Here, I have an idea.”

“Hmm?” Ilia had only been half paying attention, staring down another group with a subtle red coloration creeping across her skin, when she suddenly felt Weiss standing the pair up.

“There’s someone I want you to meet, I think it’ll help.” Weiss gave a soft smile to Ilia, whose skin had returned to its default darker tones, and she responded with a shrug.

“Anywhere is better than here…” With a heavy sigh, Ilia did her best to avoid looking between the tables as Weiss led the pair from the cafeteria and through the winding halls of Atlas Academy.

They walked for several minutes of silence, Ilia becoming filled with guilt for worrying more about the stares of the students than the words of encouragement her girlfriend had attempted to provide her. Despite that, Weiss still maintained an aura of positivity, and Ilia wondered who she was planning on introducing her to. They’d entered an unfamiliar part of the academy, far from any of the dormitories, and her eyes simply scanned the walls of the empty hallways while they walked.

Eventually the pair came to a rather impressive looking door with letters bolted to the front. The metallic letters formed the words  _ Ace Ops _ across the top and Weiss didn’t hesitate to knock against it. Ilia began to feel nervous, having expected it to be another student that Weiss was planning on introducing her to, and wondered what possible advice the Ace Ops were going to provide her.

The door opened and a man with slicked back brown hair and teal eyes looked between the two with a smile.

“Good morning Weiss.” Pulling out his scroll with a raised eyebrow he glanced at the time before looking back at the pair. “Training isn’t scheduled for another hour. Need something?”

Knowingly, the man looked to Ilia, giving her a polite nod and flashing a grin. Returning the nod, Ilia gave a curious glance past him to the massive room beyond the door. It looked like every wall was covered in bookshelves, and a massive table in the center had a large holographic display hovering above it. Her eyes squinted slightly as she tried to make out what was being displayed when the man took a small step to the side suddenly blocking her view.

“Good morning Clover, I was wondering if Marrow was available to talk?” Weiss gave a pleasant smile to Clover who turned his attention back to her.

“Marrow? Are you sure you don’t want to talk to someone a little more competent?” From inside the room a female voice chuckled as a woman with blonde and brown hair, shaved on the sides, stepped into view. A pair of pink eyes could be seen gazing curiously at whoever might be at the door, and Weiss briefly looked back towards the woman she knew as Harriet Bree. Harriet’s eyes lingered on Weiss before falling on Ilia with a look of concern. She disappeared behind Clover and the light levels in the room decreased as whatever hologram was being displayed turned off.

“I’m plenty competent  _ thank you _ . Besides, they asked for me instead of you now didn’t they?” A male voice responded to the female and Clover stepped aside as this newest individual stepped into view with a grin. “Now then, how can I help you two?”

Ilia looked at the man, tilting her head and wondering what made Weiss think this guy could give her any advice whatsoever. His greenish-black hair, blue eyes, and darker skin certainly made him stand out amongst the average individual, but looking at his uniform that matched Clovers she could immediately tell this was just another Atlas soldier. She began to frown until sudden movement behind him caught her eye, and to her surprise she could see the wagging of a dark gray tail.

“Hello Marrow, I was wondering if you had a few moments to spare. I was hoping to introduce you to-” Weiss gestured to Ilia, but before she could finish Marrow’s eyes lit up and he grinned eagerly at the faunus girl.

“Ilia Amitola right? It’s great to meet you!” Without hesitation Marrow reached forward to grasp one of Ilia’s hands with the both of his, shaking it vigorously.

“Down boy…” Clover chuckled and pat Marrow on the back, the faunus male suddenly standing at attention with a cough as he withdrew his hands to his sides. “Well then, I’ll leave you to it. Just make sure not to be late for training, got it?”

With a nod to the group, Clover hit a button to close the door as Marrow stepped out into the hall, his tail still wagging madly as he beamed at Ilia.

“Uhh yeah, how do you…” Ilia was surprised that a member of the Ace Ops knew her by name, but the answer clicked as soon as she began to ask the question.

“I saw the speech the two of you gave to the rebels on the news. It was inspiring to say the least, and I was thrilled to know you came out of it alive and well while Jacques Schnee was left squirming.” Marrow couldn’t help but laugh as the image of Jacques Schnee walking away with Carna to discuss the conditions in the mines filled his thoughts. “Anyways, what can I help you with?”

“As you’re both a member of the Ace Ops and a faunus, I was wondering if you’d be willing to help provide some advice on dealing with those who might have certain... _ opinions _ about the faunus here in Atlas.” Weiss furrowed her brow slightly, feeling a little badly she couldn’t give Ilia any proper advice beyond ignoring the others. She’d been used to being in the spotlight, but for her it was as an object of affection to be obtained and sought, but for Ilia it had always been something different. For all the faunus it was an entirely different kind of attention.

“Ahh, I see.” The wagging of his tail came to a stop as Marrow frowned slightly to Ilia. “I guess it probably hasn’t been too easy for you, especially with the entire nation still wondering if the two of you are love birds or a publicity stunt as well.”

With a step towards Ilia, Weiss grabbed hold of her hand and gave a cold glare to Marrow.

“Not that that’s any of my business that is.” Marrow lifted his hands defensively as he met her gaze, coughing slightly as he looked from Weiss back to Ilia, and he let out a sigh. “Unfortunately, at the very least I can tell you it doesn’t get any easier. Even with my status there are plenty that argue I’m simply here as some sort of diversity choice, just a poster child to show that even a faunus has a chance at earning his place, but the key is to never let that bother you.”

“Such wisdom, why didn’t I ever think of that.” Ilia responded in more snarky a fashion than she’d intended, and she quickly attempted to backpedal. “Sorry, I mean, that tends to be the most common advice. Don’t let them get under your skin, ignore them, block them out, so on and so forth.”

“Well remember, you yourself said violence can’t be the answer, and I’m sure you learned that the hard way with your time in the White Fang after all.” Feeling her stomach drop slightly at the mention of her past, Ilia frowned slightly. Sensing her discomfort, Marrow did his best to move past the comment. “With that in mind, all those looks you're talking about, the whispers and the hate, I turned them into a motivator. If they were going to view me as weak and beneath them, what better way to shut them up than to have them salute me as a superior? At the end of the day I’ve worked myself to the bone to get where I am, and I have the respect of people like General Ironwood who recognize me as a soldier and a Huntsman first. Even during the chaos of the rebellion when every single faunus was being scrutinized, my fellow Ace Ops and the General himself never once questioned my loyalties. Everyone else, well they have their opinions sure, but I’ll never stop fighting to keep them safe. Otherwise, I'd just be a hypocrite wouldn't I?”

“Isn’t that exhausting though? Having to put in all that extra effort practically out of spite?” Ilia frowned slightly, wondering how someone like Marrow lasted so long in Atlas that they made it into the Ace Ops and still managed to carry such a positive attitude.

“I won’t lie, it was at first. Despite the fact the early years as an Atlas student usually involve sculpting and molding everyone into ideal soldiers, most students come from families that have taught them less than ideal beliefs. Beliefs that, needless to say, don’t exactly go away in a single semester.” Marrow’s tail drooped as he recalled his early days in the academy, before a grin got it wagging once more. “However certain other soldiers acted to inspire me.”

His eyes moved to Weiss, giving her his first smile since the two had met.

“Winter Schnee was one of the few soldiers who treated me as just that, a soldier. I never felt treated differently when she was around.” Marrow then furrowed his brow and scratched at his cheek nervously. “Then again, her training was equally brutal for everyone, so in hindsight it’s hard to tell if that was circumstantial or intentional. Despite the fact she wasn’t that much older than me she commanded so much respect, not for being a Schnee, but simply for being an excellent soldier.”

“That certainly sounds like Winter.” Weiss chuckled as the two briefly bonded over their mutual respect of Winter, before Marrow turned back to Ilia.

“Anyways, I guess my point is that there will always be those trying to keep you down, and those that will do their best to raise you up. The important thing is who you think is worth the time to listen to and go from there. From what I’ve seen the people around you are pretty worth listening to, so don’t let them fall by the wayside because you’re so worried about those that aren’t.” Marrow’s tail continued to wag and he placed a hand on Ilia’s shoulder. She gave a guilty look to Weiss, having practically ignored her attempts of comfort in the cafeteria and doing exactly what Marrow was advising her not to do.

“I… I guess you have a point…” Ilia let out a sigh, doing her best to breath out all the anxieties that had been haunting her since returning to the academy, and gave a thankful smile to Marrow. “You give pretty inspiring speeches yourself, y’know?”

Marrow did his best to maintain a dignified composure as he placed his hand back by his side, but his rapidly wagging tail betrayed his attempts at modesty. Reaching slowly behind himself he clutched onto it, stopping the motions, and gave a polite bow to the pair.

“If only Harriet had heard that.” The trio snickered quietly together as Marrow turned and stepped back towards the door, giving a friendly wave to the pair. “Again, it was a pleasure meeting you and I hope my advice helps. Never hesitate to stop by, and feel free to join us for training every now and then!”

“I’ll think about it.” With a wave farewell Ilia watched as the door to the Ace Ops room closed behind Marrow, and she turned to Weiss with an apologetic smile. “Thanks for that, and I’m sorry if I was ignoring you back in the cafeteria. I’ve just been having a difficult time being here. No matter how long ago it was, I just keep remembering how things ended before...”

Weiss could see the sorrow in Ilia’s eyes and pulled the girl into a hug. With a strong embrace, she could feel the other girl take another heavy breath, and pulled away just far enough to place a gentle kiss against her lips with a smile.

“I know, but I promise you that this time will be different. I’m here, by your side, and nothing anyone else says is going to change that. Besides, in the grand scheme of things gossip seems a little low of a priority wouldn’t you think?” Weiss raised an eyebrow with a chuckle and Ilia shuddered as she recalled the information she’d been let in on when joining the group. Details about their true enemy, Salem, certainly made something as petty as academy gossip seem meaningless.

“That...is an excellent point! Though I’m not sure if thinking about that makes me feel better or worse. Actually, now that you mention it, I almost wish that gossip was  _ all _ I had to worry about rather than, well, you know...” Ilia grinned awkwardly and Weiss couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.

“We’ve all been there, trust me. It almost feels silly to be attending something as simple as a ball given what we’re up against doesn’t it?” Weiss continued smiling, but her chest tightened up a bit as she began to dwell on the bigger picture. Really, it did feel odd to be taking part in such a normal event when the threat of Salem loomed on the horizon. She felt a strange nostalgia to Yang’s demands that Blake take part in the dance back at Beacon. Thinking back, Torchwick seemed such a small time enemy compared to what they were up against now.

“A little bit, but I’m not complaining. Honestly I’m actually really looking forward to it. I didn’t exactly get the chance the last time I was here; there was so much paranoia about letting anyone too close that I never put too much effort into participating in things like dances or clubs. Now though, it's almost liberating that everyone knows, despite the whispers and rumors going around.” Ilia blushed as she admitted to enjoying the idea of something so cheesy as a school dance, but Weiss simply smiled at her honesty.

“You’re not the only one looking forward to this. Believe it or not the last dance I attended I was turned down and ended up going alone. At first anyways…” Weiss pursed her lips and blushed in embarrassment, grabbing Ilia by the hand and starting the pair absentmindedly down the halls.

“Who in their right mind would ever dream of turning you down?” Ilia was astonished that someone existed in the world that Weiss would approach to ask out, and even more aghast that they’d have the gall to turn her down.

“Believe it or not I think you turned them down as well, shortly before our group left for Argus if I remember right.” Weiss chuckled as she recalled Neptune strolling off to hit on Ilia before everyone went their separate ways. “A certain blue haired individual that smiles and winks  _ way _ more than anyone has any right to.”

“Neptune!? You asked  _ him _ to the dance and he turned  _ you _ down?” Ilia stopped in her steps, jaw slacked and eyebrows raised in shock as she recalled his attempts to flirt with her months prior. It wasn’t as if he didn’t have a certain charm to him, but he was far from her type for a myriad of reasons.

“I was surprised too. As it turns out, he was too embarrassed to go with a date in general because he was worried he’d make a fool of himself due to his inability to dance.” Weiss snickered, memories of that night filling her thoughts. It started out so seemingly poor having gone alone, but the night picked up after Neptune had come to talk to her. Knowing that it had in fact been something wrong with him, and not her, had brightened her mood considerably, and only a few minutes later Jaune had stepped into the party wearing a dress. Part of her mused over the idea of him pulling such a stunt again, and she couldn’t hide her amusement as she let out another light chuckle. “Eventually he got over it thanks to Jaune, who I guess as part of some sort of agreement came back into the dance wearing a dress. I didn’t dare ask where he’d gotten it from but the evening certainly became far more entertaining after the fact.”

Ilia couldn’t resist giggling to herself at the idea of Jaune wearing a dress to the dance, and she was thankful to know that despite being turned down Weiss had ended up having an enjoyable evening all the same. She wondered what it was about Neptune that had captured Weiss’s attention, but very quickly shrugged such worries away. Instead she felt a small bit of pride that despite how confident he’d seemed, she hadn’t made the same mistake he had in turning down an invitation from Weiss even with her similar inability to dance.

“Anyways, we should probably head back to the cafeteria before the others start to wonder. I already disappeared on everyone once and I can only imagine the chaos Ruby would cause if she’d thought something had happened to us again.” With a roll of her eyes and a soft smile, Weiss began walking the pair back down the path they’d come from in hopes to find the rest of her team before breakfast ended.

\---

“Hey, what the hell's your problem?”

“Yang, maybe we should just go…”

“No, I want to know what the hell is going on!”

While Ruby had run off to try and find Penny and Jaune, eager to know where Penny had blasted Jaune off to in such a hurry, Yang and Blake had decided to head straight to breakfast after getting ready for the day. Stepping in, unlike the murmurs and whispers that greeted Weiss and Ilia, the cafeteria had instead seemed to fall silent. Eyes lowered as most of the students simply stared at their food, creating a rather off putting atmosphere for the pair as they entered. Having spent most of their time eating with the Ace Ops or in town, Yang was lost in thought wondering if the cafeteria was always like this when someone bumped into her. At first she went to apologize, assuming she’d simply not been paying attention while on the lookout for the others that had gone on ahead, when a second person very intentionally shoulder checked her.

“What’s your problem?” Yang had turned and shouted to the individual, a younger boy with snowy white hair and bright green eyes, who merely gave her a dirty stare over his shoulder before walking away. Taking a step towards him, her hair beginning to illuminate in anger, she then felt the gentle calming hand of Blake on her shoulder and managed to calm herself down.

“Maybe we should just go eat with the Ace Ops again.” Blake gave a nervous look across the cafeteria, and even if only a handful of eyes were glancing in their direction, she could sense that the entire focus of the room was on them. She shrunk down slightly, her feline ears drooping, and wondered if the students were merely discriminating against Yang because of her relationship with a faunus like Blake. Instead, her ear twitched as she heard someone at a nearby table mutter under their breath in the direction of the boy walking away.

“Careful or she’ll break your leg too…”

This time it was Blake’s turn to be angry, and removing her hand from Yang stepped towards the younger girl that had spoken. Lengthy blonde hair seemed to block Blake’s immediate presence from her peripheral, but as she tucked back her hair to take a bite, she froze as she glanced up towards the woman casting a shadow over her.

“What did you just say?” Staring down this girl, Blake could immediately see panic in the girl who’d assumed she’d spoken quiet enough to avoid detection. Nervously looking between the rest of the table, she found nobody coming to her aid, and gulped anxiously.

“It’s just, we all saw what she did at the Vytal Festival back when! I recognize her, I remember that fight!” Stammering through her words, the girl looked past Blake towards Yang, who felt her heart sink as she immediately knew the moment the blonde girl was speaking of. “That other guy, Mercury I think, he’d already lost the match when-”

“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” Blake reached down, grabbing the neck of the girl’s uniform and pulling her to her feet. Regardless of the fact everyone else had been doing their best to keep their heads down, all eyes were now on her as the other girl squirmed and pulled at Blake’s hand to try and free herself. Blake’s eyes stared down the others at the table, a few of which looked like they were going to move to the aid of their friend, but immediately backed off as their eyes met Blake’s.

“Blake, it’s okay.” This time it was Yang who had placed her hand on Blake. In her fury she hadn’t realized the full impact of her actions, and blinked as she dropped the girl and took a step back. The fearful eyes looking up at her felt so familiar, and her ears once again drooped down in a panic as she was reminded of her time in the White Fang. Her heart started to race, her throat felt tight as those memories came back to her, when another voice broke her from the spell.

“Excuse me, is everything alright here?”

Blake turned to see a smiling girl with lengthy red curls down her back looking between the two groups. She grinned wide to Yang and Blake, and the pair could see a collapsed blonde on the floor behind her. Jaune was wheezing, attempting to lift himself up by clinging to the seat of the table, but was clearly struggling. Their eyes moved back up to Penny, who had stepped towards the girl Blake had been gripping onto moments ago.

“Actually no, things are not alright.” Padding out the wrinkles of her uniform, the girl pointed a shaking finger towards Blake. “This faunus bi-”

Before she could finish her sentence Penny had raised a hand to the girl’s wrist in a flash, and judging by her sudden pained reaction, had begun squeezing rather tight.

“I wish to remind you that discrimination against the faunus, and in particular my friends, will not be tolerated. If you would like to explain the situation calmly then I’d like to think we can all get through this without further incident.” Still grinning ear to ear, in an almost terrifying fashion, Penny released the girls arm.

“Yes… ma’am.” Sneering slightly, she glared at Yang, but kept her hands down in front of her waist as she massaged a reddened wrist. “Miss Xiao-Long began aggressively shouting at one of my fellow classmates when suddenly Miss Belladonna attacked me for merely stating a truth regarding events that occurred in the previous Vytal Festival Tournament.”

Penny seemed to ponder the girl’s statements for a moment when a holographic display appeared above her head. It projected Yang and Blake entering the cafeteria, when a pair of individuals shoulder checked Yang one at a time. She shouted, before being calmed by Blake, when audio at a very high volume played back the girl’s statement about Yang breaking his legs. The blonde girl’s cheeks flushed as her passive aggressive comment was broadcast to the cafeteria, and Penny tilted her head with a frown.

“I believe  _ many _ of the actions that have occurred up until this point were unwarranted. I would also like to remind everyone that the individual in question, Mercury Black, is a known criminal working against the Kingdoms of Remnant. Furthermore, his associate Emerald Sustrai is suspected to have a perception altering semblance. Judging from the testimony given by Miss Xiao Long, as well as Coco Adel and the late Pyrrha Nikos, many moments during the Vytal Festival would provide evidence that this theory is correct and would absolve the actions performed by Yang at the conclusion of her match.” As she spoke, the wanted posters for Mercury and Emerald floated above her head, the two wearing smirks in their photos, before the display blinked out and she resumed smiling at the girl.

“Well, isn’t that convenient.” Unconvinced she shot another dirty look at Yang before shaking her head.

“Now then, I ask once again, is everything alright here?” Still grinning at the girl, Penny watched as she resumed sitting and stared down at her tray.

“Everything is just dandy,  _ ma’am _ .” Speaking through gritted teeth, the blonde girl remained silent as Penny turned to greet Yang and Blake. Before she could speak however, another pair of voices urgently called towards the group.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Ilia and Weiss, who had just returned to the cafeteria, saw the small group that had formed and sensed that something was off. Ilia moved towards Blake, noting the panic still lingering in her eyes, and placed a gentle hand on her back. Weiss moved towards Yang, watching as her hair dimmed to its default blonde, and who merely shook her head in response.

“Nothing, just a minor disagreement.” Yang’s voice was empty, her heart still heavy as her mind played back through the worst day of her life.

“Well, is Jaune alright at least?” Weiss tilted her head, wondering if the collapsed Jaune had anything to do with the tension in the air.

“Oh, that reminds me!” Penny reached down, gripping Jaune’s arm once more and lifting him upright beside her. “Jaune has now acquired a date to the ball! The mission was a complete success!”

Much to the distaste of the girl’s sitting at the table behind Penny, confetti and glitter suddenly sprayed out in all directions, and with a series of angry mumbles they picked up their trays and stormed off. Despite her current mood, Yang couldn’t help but let out a brief snort as she watched them trying to comb the decor from their hair. If she didn’t know better she’d have almost guessed that Penny had intentionally aimed the colorful spray towards them, and she shared a grin with Blake as she followed a similar line of thought, the pairs mood elevating ever so slightly.

“Yup, hurraaaay for me.” Jaune still seemed to be disoriented, barely standing thanks to Penny, and as she released his arm to lift her own in a symbol of victory the group watched as he fell back to the floor and grumbled. This time, everyone let out a round of laughter, before Yang crouched down to grab one arm while Blake grabbed the other, and the two helped sit him upright at the table beside them. One by one the group took up the now empty confetti covered seats together and congratulated Jaune on his achievement.

"Hey, does anybody know where Nora and Ren are? She'll love to hear about this." Yang stood up, eagerly peering across the still silent cafeteria for any sign of the pair, and was surprised to find they were nowhere to be found.

"Maybe they already finished eating and went on a walk?" Blake looked towards the windows to the well lit grounds, wondering if she'd chance seeing either of them walking by.

"Well wherever they are, I hope they're staying out of trouble." Even Jaune, tired as he was, gave a bewildered look to Weiss, before the group erupted in further laughter together. After a moment though, the laughter turned to worry as Yang gave another glance around the cafeteria.

"No, but seriously, where's Nora...?" 


	3. Never a Dull Moment

Losing Nora was something the group often went out of their way to avoid. In most circumstances, they trusted Jaune and Ren to keep her under control, but it usually took the both of them to maintain order. With Jaune having been blasted off by Penny, Ren and Nora had been left alone in a cafeteria of at least a hundred other people, and the possibilities of what could’ve happened were weighing heavily on the minds of the group. It was miracle enough she had yet to once again declare herself Queen of the castle and wage war on the student body again.

“I don’t get it, why is this such a big deal? I mean they probably finished up eating early and went to go do… something else?” Ilia frowned as she walked with the group clinging closely to Weiss. She looked between the urgent expression of the majority of team members with a raised eyebrow.

“You don’t know Nora like we do. When she’s left to her own devices things can get a little destructive. All it takes is one shoulder bump or one wrong look and she’ll declare some insane competition of strength no matter who her opponent.” Weiss chuckled slightly, though the worry still floated through her mind as their group made their way from the cafeteria to nearby hallways.

“We once pretty much destroyed our cafeteria back in Beacon with just a food fight. I’m talking crumpled pillars, shattered windows, debris  _ everywhere _ . It was pretty fun don’t get me wrong, but things were a lot more go with the flow at Beacon. If she tried a stunt like that here I can’t begin to imagine what would happen, especially without Goodwitch’s magic to fix everything up again.” Despite her somewhat cheerful nostalgia, the dread building in Yang at the thought of the lot of them being put on some sort of house arrest because Nora crippled the entirety of the second years sent a shiver down her spine, and she picked up the pace.

“Well if it was some sort of competition or something, wouldn’t it make sense for her to be in the training hall?” Ilia glanced down a side hall they were about to pass and gestured forward with her head. The rest of the group slowed their pace and turned back, contemplating the idea for a moment and looking between one another.

“It’s not as if we have any better ideas. This would certainly be mindlessly roaming the campus like we have been.” Glancing down the hall towards the training areas, Blake shrugged. “We should probably hurry though, the longer she’s left on her own, well…”

The group nodded in unison and picked up the pace, practically running down hall after hall towards the training room. They were nearing the final corner when a sudden tremor shot through the ground and threatened their footing.

Bracing against either the walls or one another, everyone but Penny was briefly staggered by what felt like a nearby explosion. In normal circumstances such a sensation might cause panic and fear through the group, but instead they each gave one another a knowing look.

“Welp, found her.” Yang chuckled as she stood upright, holding Blake at her side as the faunus girl had used the blonde to keep herself from toppling over. Ilia had done the same with Weiss, with Jaune clinging to Penny, the only member of the group unphased by the tremor.

Swiftly making their way to the door, Yang pressed her scroll against a pad outside the room. A ding of approval turned the panel a bright green as the door slid open and the group stepped inside and gave a quick look around. At first the room seemed empty, several pillars and walls had been produced from hard light - a special feature allowing the room to provide numerous combat environments - and just before anyone could take another step further into the room an enormous blur of a figure flew over top of a pillar and smashed into the wall beside them. A pulse of energy protected the surface from any damage, and an enormous woman stood up and dusted herself off with a wild look in her eyes.

“YES! I love this youthful energy!” With only the briefest of glances towards the group from her brown eyes, Elm Ederne of the Ace Ops quickly rushed back in the direction she’d been flung from with a roar. The group could only gawk slightly before skirting the edge of the room, too afraid to travel into the sea of pillars and walls and risk getting struck with whatever attack had sent a woman like Elm soaring through the air.

As the group moved along the edge they found a trio of familiar faces sitting at a table and watching the fight. Moving closer, the eyes of their comrades met them with smiles, with Ren sat at one end of the table and Ruby standing beside him. On the opposite side of the table sat Vine Zeki, who merely glanced in their direction before returning his focus to the combat with a neutral stare.

“Guys, you’ve missed practically the whole thing! This has been such a crazy fight!” Ruby hopped eagerly up and down at the spot as she pointed to a slowly clearing cloud of dust revealed Nora and Elm smashing the grips of their hammers against one another and digging their heels in as deep as they could.

“Why though? Is this just some sort of early training?” Weiss frowned slightly, wondering what compelled Nora to skip out on breakfast to train with the Ace Ops alone. Her nose then twitched as she gave a second glance to the table and realized there were two enormous stacks of pancakes in front of the two men sitting at it; between them was a third plate with only a singular pancake remaining. “And what’s with the food?”

“Miss Valkyrie and Miss Ederne both wished to claim the entirety of the provided pancakes at this morning's breakfast. A competition was proposed with several tests of strength to determine who would lay claim to the food. These tests included events such as arm wrestling or timed push-ups, of which Elm was naturally the victor.” Without looking towards them, Vine continued to watch the combat carefully.

“True, though Nora has won plenty as well, including running laps and timed pull-ups. As you can see, we’ve reached a tie with a final pancake to determine the overall victor.” In the time Weiss had known Ren, he’d never looked so smug as he did in that moment, and she briefly wondered if she was imagining it. Still, Nora keeping pace with an Ace Ops was nothing to scoff at, and she herself was impressed just hearing about it.

“GO NORA!” Jaune seemed to have spiked in energy as he shouted towards his teammate eagerly. The exhausted state he’d been in having been dragged around the school immediately followed by more running to find Nora had all but dissipated.

“Anyways, at present the competition has devolved into simply knocking the other over. It looks like they might be at a stalemate for now.” Ren tilted his head, his eyes lingering on Nora, though his fists were clenched under the table in hopes she’d claim the victory.

“Well that’s exciting and all, but we’ve got even  _ more _ exciting news.” Yang smirked as she peeled her eyes from the fight and looked to Ren with a grin.

“Oh?” Ren looked away from the fighting towards Yang, who was waggling her eyebrows and pointing towards Jaune.

“Jaune got a date to the dance.”

“HE WHAT!?” Despite the lower volume that Yang was speaking, Nora’s ear twitched as she overheard the news. Her eyes went wide and she turned towards the group, staring at Jaune in shock.

“No… DISTRACTIONS!” Taking advantage of Nora’s loss of focus, Elm let out a powerful grunt and with a great amount of upward force shoved Magnhild up and out of Nora’s hands. As the girl watched her weapon twirl from her grasp and out of reach, Elm gripped Timber tightly and triggered the rockets on the back of the huge hammer, causing the weapon to lurch forward with the added force of Elm’s own body and slam into Nora’s gut. The girl’s aura shattered instantly and sent her spiraling through the air, her body sparking pink before the coloration faded in an instant.

“With that, our contest ends.” With a still neutral expression, Vine reached over with a fork and knife, claiming the final pancake and placing it on top of the stack in front of him.

“Nora!” Ren stood and hopped over the table, leading the pack as the rest of the group followed closely behind him to check on Nora’s well being. Yang felt the tiniest bit of responsibility as they ran, wondering if the news should have waited.

“Nora, are you alright?” Ruby’s speed allowed her to quickly outpace Ren, a blur of rose petals reaching the collapsed redhead who seemed to be unconscious.

“Hey, is she alright?” Blake gave a nervous glance past the rest of the group, having fallen towards the back of rest of them.

“Jaune…” Without moving, Nora’s lips parted briefly as she weakly muttered a name.

“Nora? What is it, are you-” Jaune quickly rushed forward to Nora’s side at the sound of his name. As team leader he felt responsible for her health, but before he could get the words out the neck of his uniform was being squeezed tight. Unable to finish his sentence, or even breathe for that matter, Jaune weakly tried to peel Nora’s hand from his throat.

“This better be one  _ hell _ of a girl you met to cost me the last pancake like that.” It was hard to imagine that a single pancake could create so much rage in a girl, but as the group watched Nora glare at Jaune, they all couldn’t help but feel a little thankful they weren't on the receiving end. Furthermore, they each held a tiny bit of their own curiosity in that, much like Nora, they wondered what kind of girl Jaune would be attending the ball with.

\---

Several minutes later the group sat around the table that Vine and Ren had been at prior. A few more chairs had been gathered while Elm and Vine had dismissed themselves, with Elm gloating endlessly between bites of pancake as the pair exited the training hall.

“So, tell us! Who is this  _ mystery _ girl you’re seeing?” Even with the anger she’d been feeling earlier, having her stomach filled to the brim with pancakes and syrup had calmed Nora down a great deal.

“Well uhh, I don’t really know to be honest. Penny introduced us and it all happened so fast, she just kinda said yes and said we’d talk more later.” Jaune chuckled awkwardly as Nora once again glared daggers at his poor answer.

“Do you even know her name?” Squinting further, Nora watched as Jaune quickly nodded before struggling with a response.

“C...C...Ciel! That was it, her names Ciel, uhh…” Jaune managed to recall distinctly the 'C' in the girl's name before remembering her full first name, though as he struggled to explain the situation he'd realized he didn't yet know her last.

“Ciel Soleil! A former member of my team; she was with me during the Vytal Festival Tournament.” Penny helped Jaune finish his thought, providing a brief introduction to Ciel for the rest of the group.

“Oh! I remember her! She was the one that kept staring at her watch right?” Ruby immediately bolted up from her seat, remembering the girl in question. It was such a long time ago she couldn’t really remember much about her other than that, at the time, she’d been unaware of Penny’s synthetic nature. Of course, with all that out of the bag and Penny’s brief break from combat, she wondered what happened to her.

“That’s correct!” Penny smiled eagerly, cheerful that Ruby had remembered her companion from so long ago.

“Staring at her watch? Were you guys in a hurry or something?” Blake frowned, giving a look to Jaune, who was still awkwardly smiling through the whole situation. She wondered if he was going to be alright with a total stranger like this.

“Umm, not exactly. Miss Soleil simply has a passion for schedules, that’s all.” It was difficult for Penny to describe Ciel’s obsessive attention to detail and staying on schedule without potentially causing conflict between her and Jaune before they’d really had any time together. In the back of her mind she was sure it would be fine, but she worried that Ciel may end up a little too overbearing for Jaune.

“That’s not really a surprise.” Weiss chuckled lightly. “She is from Atlas after all. Everything is meant to occur precisely on time, no earlier and no later.”

“When was the last time any of us actually kept to a schedule?” Yang shot a look to Weiss with a playful smirk, causing Weiss’s cheeks to flush.

“That’s not for a lack of trying mind you! We simply live chaotic lives, it’s hard okay!” Pouting slightly, Weiss furrowed her brow in frustration. It had been quite a long time since Weiss was able to properly predict how a day would go. Even their morning as a group was simply supposed to involve waking up, heading to breakfast, and training, and that had already been tossed out the window by invitations to a ball and a competition between Nora and Elm over  _ pancakes _ . 

“I don’t mind it. I think it’s nice to have that sort of freedom. Keeps things exciting don’t you think?” Ilia gave Weiss a gentle nudge in the side, offering the girl a soft smile. “Imagine if you’d stuck to your schedule when you first got to Atlas. Personally I’m glad things go awry from time to time.” 

“Results oriented thinking.” Weiss let out a defeated sigh, before nodding in agreement. “I will say though, being kidnapped might’ve, sort’ve been a little exciting…”

“Whose getting kidnapped?” Interrupting the moment between Ilia and Weiss, the door to the training room opened with Clover leading the rest of the Ace Ops inside.

“Nobody that we know of, but there’s still plenty of time in the day.” Yang turned and gave a polite nod to the group with a chuckle as they all stood from their seats.

“True enough, which is why it’s our responsibility to keep on our toes and be at peak performance at all times. That being said…” Clover glanced to his scroll just as the time rolled over to the hour mark. “Let’s get down to it.”

\---

Several hours later Team RWBY, Team JNR, and Ilia were all collapsed across the floor. Penny had left in order to resume her duties as the protector of Mantle while the Ace Ops were indisposed, and as the lot of them struggled to stand the Ace Ops couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Where’s all that enthusiasm from earlier!” Elm walked towards Nora, giving the girl a hefty pat on the back. It took all she had not to fall forward, and Nora grumbled to herself as she gave a sideways look to the taller woman.

"You can't be this tired after just a little bit of sparring can ya Ruby? All that speed isn't gonna do you any good without the stamina to back it up!" Standing beside Elm with an equally smirky look, Harriet looked down at the weary Ruby.

“So tired. Must eat. Need...cookies…” Ruby had struggled to her feet as well, but as she wobbled side to side, she slid back down to the floor and continued to mutter to herself about food.

“Cookies, meat, heck, I’d even take that disgusting algae drink Ren made us drink that one time at this point!” Nora stepped towards Ruby, mouth drooling as the two fantasized about numerous foods they craved.

“Algae drink? Disgusting?” Vine furrowed his brow in confusion as he glanced from Nora to Ren. “It contains such spectacular properties, as well as nutrients vital to one's well being. What part of that is disgusting?”

“Thank you! That’s what I’m always saying, and yet people always get caught up on the color of my smoothies. It’s wonderful to hear a voice a reason around here.” Ren gave a thankful look to Vine before taking a few steps over to Nora. “Now then, if you really  _ are _ in the mood, I’m sure I can find enough ingredients to whip something up!”

“I uhh, think I’ll manage.” Nora regretted her exaggeration, and watched as Ren frowned slightly before looking to Jaune.

“How about you Jaune? It does wonders for your skin, perfect for meeting a lady friend!” Ren had attracted a few stares, his otherwise normally calm exterior now enthusiastic about his algae blend. He met each of the gazes, realizing he’d become the certain of attention and yet nobody was willing to take up his offer. Even the Ace Ops did their best to avoid his gaze, and he crossed his arms. “Very well, I can only offer, but you’re all missing out.”

A light wave of laughter went through the group, the majority of which were still laying on the ground.

“I don’t know how you guys do it. This is brutal!” A short distance from the others, Ilia lay beside Weiss, panting heavily as the grip on her weapon loosened and it rolled a few inches away.

“You don’t have to train with us you know.” Weiss's breathing was heavy as well as she tilted her head to get a look at the dark skinned girl beside her. Reaching a hand up, letting Myrtenaster lay at her side, she brushed a thumb over Ilia’s shoulder with a weak smile. “You’re not on any team here, you could just take it easy.”

“After what you told me?” Despite her exhaustion, Ilia managed to sit up. Wiping sweat from her brow she gave a look of concern to Weiss. “Given the happenings of the world, I’d rather be up to snuff and ready like the rest of you. I can’t have you diving in front of every rocket that comes my way you know.”

There was a flicker of fire in Ilia’s eyes that caused Weiss simply to chuckle and nod.

“I’ll still do it every single time you know.” Sitting herself up, Weiss scooted closer to Illia as the rest of the group collected themselves as well.

“Hey, so why are we training so hard anyways? Isn’t this supposed to be some sort’ve R&R week? Shouldn’t we have this time off so we can get ready for the Ball?” Yang cracked her knuckles as her breathing returned to normal and she glanced towards Clover with a frown.

“Despite the festivities, those of us that know the truth of things can’t afford to slack in our duties. Grimm don’t exactly need morale boosts or rest breaks, so we can’t afford them either. Speaking of which, missions are still ongoing as is construction of the Amity Project. I need a volunteer to guard the workers tomorrow in the event any Grimm show up.” Clover glanced down at his scroll as he pulled up the details for the assignment.

“Or any people.” Blake stared at Clover, the room going quiet. Her opinion of the Happy Huntresses wasn’t exactly a secret, feeling that keeping them in the dark and going so far as to combat them to keep it that way was the wrong way to handle things. Still, she wouldn’t go against orders, simply let her feelings be known.

“Ah yes, or people.” Clover frowned slightly, letting out a sigh before looking back over the group and noticing a hand standing straight up.

“I’d like to go.”

All eyes turned to look at Ilia, her hand raised up and her eyes locked confidently onto Clover, who raised an eyebrow.

“Ahh, Miss Amitola. While you’re privy to certain information due to your association with the group, you’re not technically an official Huntresses yet. As an envoy of the White Fang your responsibilities lie elsewhere. I have a mission with Marrow regarding some faunus in the city that would be right up you-” Clover was glancing back down to this scroll, looking at details regarding a different mission, when Ilia interrupted him.

“Sir, I would like to insist I go on the Amity mission tomorrow.” Looking back up at Ilia, Clover pursed his lips, sensing she had no sense of backing down.

“Are you sure Ilia? I could really use your-” Marrow took a step forward, sensing the tension between the two rising, and did his best to try and ease Ilia onto a different path. With a grin, he extended a hand out towards her in hopes to draw some of her attention.

“I’m sure.” Without even giving Marrow a look, she kept her eyes directly on Clover. Tail drooping, Marrow backed down with his smile vanishing almost immediately.

"Listen here, you're lucky that you-" Harriet took an aggressive step towards Ilia, though an outstretched arm from Clover stopped her from drawing any closer. She looked to him in disbelief as he simply shook his head, the woman standing down with arms crossed and an angry huff.

“What if I went with her?” Weiss stepped forward, interlocking her hand with Ilia’s while following her gaze to Clover. “Or, technically, if she went with me? I can officially take the mission and she can tag along as an extra set of eyes. Given our work together recently in bringing together parts of Atlas I’d say our reputation could certainly ease tensions with certain  _ people _ that might show up, wouldn’t you?”

The room remained silent, all eyes on Clover who tilted his head once more, before finally shrugging.

“Very well. I get the sense that even if I didn’t _officially_ let her tag along you’d find a way to bring her with you anyways.” Typing in the relevant information into his scroll, both Weiss and Ilia could feel their own scrolls vibrate moments later, before Clover tucked the device away and nodded to the group. “Well, with that taken care of I think we can end training here for the day. Get some food and some rest, you all deserve it, and don’t forget to check the mission board from time to time.”

With an awkward farewell, Clover led the rest of the Ace Ops from the training hall.

"Food sounds GREAT right now! Real food, that is." Nora shot a look to Ren, who had looked like he was ready to offer another veggie blend any moment. Frowning slightly, he crossed his arms but didn't say anything further.

"Sounds good to me, but let's try and avoid any more disputes. I don't know if I have the energy for more combat." Yang started to lead the group towards the exit, though she noticed that Blake had hesitated to leave right away. She followed the faunus girl's eyes towards Ilia, who had yet to move from her spot, and to Weiss who remained by her side.

“What was all that about?” Weiss lowered her voice, stepping in front of Ilia and doing her best to meet the girl’s eyes. From what she could tell, the confidence had seemed to turn to sorrow, and Weiss’s heart sank as she remembered their time together in her family’s summer home. It was there that the two had first begun their romance, and where they had first gotten to know one another. Ilia had shared with her that her family was once miners for the Schnee Dust Company, miners that had died in an incident involving agitated dust and a cave in. “Oh, are these the mines...?”

Lifting her head, Ilia fought against the tears threatening to flow forth, though the speckles that coated her skin turned a pale blue. Actively doing her best to maintain her composure, the coloration spreading across her skin was repressed as she gave a weak nod and smile to Weiss.

“I need this.” Ilia took a deep breath, doing her best not to make a scene while the others were around.

“Let’s hurry to lunch before they stop serving okay guys?” Blake was lingering behind the rest of the group, who had all stopped outside the door to leave to wait for the others. Her eyes rested knowingly on Ilia, and she turned to everyone else to scoot them along. Just the mere mention of lunch was enough to get Nora and Ruby back in action, and they did a lot of the work for her in dragging the group away. 

“I understand.” Lifting her arms, Weiss embraced Ilia, giving a thankful smile to Blake as the training hall emptied out, leaving the two of them alone. Ilia’s own arms lifted slowly, wrapping out Weiss and squeezing tight. She let out a shaky breath, hearing the door close, and her willpower gave out as tears began to pour down her cheeks. Her skin changed, gradually changing from the default tan coloration to a vibrant green, the speckles across her skin, her eyes, and even the length of her ponytail turning to a deep blue. Burying her face into the crook of Weiss’s neck, Ilia no longer held back and wept.

The two stood in silence, the minutes ticking by, but not once did Weiss show concern for anything except the girl in her arms. Holding her with one arm, Weiss let her other hand comb gently through the ponytail of the other, her fingers softly moving through the silky strands that curled up at the tips. As time passed, she could see the blue begin to fade beneath her fingers, the brown she’d grown so accustomed to taking over once more, and Ilia took a step back with a teary laugh.

“Sorry about that, I thought I’d gotten it all out of me a long time ago…” Doing her best to smile, Ilia wiped the tears from her face, and Weiss simply shook her head.

“You don’t need to apologize, I assure you. Anything you need to get out, don’t hesitate, okay?” Weiss took a step towards Ilia, smiling softly into the girl’s eyes as she sniffled.

“Yeah, no problem. We should uhh, probably catch up with the others.” The redness in her eyes faded slightly, the faunus girl actively using her faunus trait to disguise the signs she’d been crying.

“Are you sure? We can take a little bit longer, I don’t mind.” Weiss gave a comforting look to Ilia, brushing a thumb across her cheek to wipe away a few lingering tears.

“I know, but we’re both starving, and I don’t think you can afford to teach dance lessons on an empty stomach.” With a smirk, Ilia watched as Weiss recalled her promise to the group that morning. Her eyes went wide and Ilia could sense the growing dread. Leaning forward, she gave Weiss a gentle peck on the cheek and gave her a cheeky grin. “At the very least, we’ll have stuck to at least one part of the schedule.”

“I suppose.” Weiss pouted for a moment before smiling herself. Pulling Ilia in close, she gave the girl a proper kiss on the lips, letting the moment last just a little bit, before pulling apart hand in hand. “Speaking of schedules, I wonder if this Ciel girl will be attending or not. I’m curious about the type of girl she is and if Jaune will be okay or not. At the very least it would be nice to meet her.”

“You worried about him?” Ilia had calmed herself for the most part, though she still actively maintained her camouflage in a way that would disguise her grief.

“Jaune doesn’t exactly have the best luck when it comes to women.” Scratching her cheek awkwardly, Weiss remembered the amount of effort Jaune had put into attempting to court her back in Beacon. Furthermore she recalls the effects losing Pyrrha had had on him in particular, and she shook her head trying to avoid bringing the mood back down again. “But he’s sweet, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Let’s hope.” Ilia shrugged, not knowing Jaune well enough to understand his poor track record, but part of her agreed with Weiss. Jaune seemed sweet, and she hoped things would work out for him.

Without another word, the two exited the training hall to catch up with the rest of the group and remind them of the upcoming dance lessons.


	4. Best Burger in Remnant

The beauty of Atlas Academy was undeniable from the higher floors of the school. A perfect view across the impressive architecture bathed in the golden light of the overhead sun provided a sense of comfort and pride to the students that roamed the halls. However, the current observer was no student, and he bore no comfort as he stared out across the grounds deep in thought. 

While the school was abuzz with excitement for the upcoming event, students wearing eager smiles everywhere they went, there stood a man with not a singular sign of joy. His mind was filled with thoughts, thoughts of his past, his present, and brooding concerns regarding his future. All their futures. Bent forward, arms resting on a window sill, Qrow Branwen let out a heavy sigh as he looked out across the grounds. Combing a hand through his graying hair, he shook his head, wondering how joyous all those students would be if they knew the darkness looming just beyond the horizon.

“That’s some bunch of kids you’re traveling with you know.”

Behind him, a cheerful voice snapped him from his trance, though his mood remained dark as he turned to address the voice.

“Well after all they’ve been through, I’d hardly call them kids anymore.” Leaning once more against the sill, his elbows behind him, Qrow nodded a polite greeting to Clover as he approached. Leaning against the wall a short few feet from Qrow, Clover contemplated the idea and couldn’t help but nod.

“Fair enough, but they still have plenty of growing to do. Licenses or not, I wouldn’t call them full blown Huntsman quite yet. For starters, I notice they don’t exactly care much for authority do they?” Tilting his head, wearing a look of concern, Clover watched as Qrow merely shrugged.

“Wouldn’t exactly know as much as we do if they stuck to the rules now would we?” Qrow pushed off of the sill, turning from Clover to glance back out across the grounds.

“That doesn’t mean their behavior has been acceptable up until this point. They’ve been lucky, all of you have, to have gotten this far. Believe me, I would know.” Clover smirked slightly, hoping that a minor joke about his semblance would be enough to lighten the mood, though his smirk faded to a frown as he watched Qrow simply stare out the window without so much as a grin.

“One parent presumed dead, another going so far as to betray her own daughter to save her skin, a pair of orphans…” Qrow began to rattle off seemingly random details, and at first Clover didn’t quite understand what he was saying. After a moment though, it dawned on him what Qrow was referring to. “I could go on but I think you get the picture. These kids have lived lives that are far from lucky. Believe me.  _ I _ would know.”

Clover stood in silence as Qrow shot him a dark look. Despite the backgrounds of the group he was traveling with, it hardly excused their present behavior. A deathwish is hardly the proper response to losing loved ones. If anything, Clover would expect the opposite, and despite his frustrations with Qrow’s logic, he didn’t want to turn their conversation into a full blown argument.

“Regardless, as their mentor you need to look after them. Their reckless behavior is eventually going to stop paying off, and when it does, you’ll be held responsible.” Clover approached Qrow, pointing directly at him, but he merely shook his head and let out a weak laugh.

“Believe it or not, I’m doing my part for those kids at this very moment.” Eyes still on Clover, Qrow watched amusedly as confusion crossed the other man’s face.

“Oh really? Elaborate.” Clover scrutinized Qrow, wondering what wisdom he would share.

“By staying away.”

The amusement from Qrow faded in an instant, and Clover found himself briefly unable to respond. They simply stood, eyes locked on one another.

“That’s what I thought. So please, tell me more about how I need to spend more time with these kids when you’ve no idea what it’s like to live with a curse for a semblance.” Qrow resumed staring out the window, expecting Clover to simply walk away. Instead, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and very quickly whipped around in preparation for a fight. To his surprise, Clover was raising his hands defensively with a somber look.

“I’m sorry, I overstepped.” Calming down slightly, Qrow resumed a more neutral stance as he gave Clover a once over. The apology was unexpected, but it wasn’t as if Clover had refuted his position. Staying away was the best he could do for his nieces and their friends. It was the best he could do for everyone. “You’re wrong about one thing though. Your semblance isn’t the only one that feels like a curse.”

“Really? Now it’s your turn to elaborate.” Qrow scoffed at the idea that Clover’s semblance could be anything but a blessing, but instead of getting an answer, he was met with a grin.

“I’ll elaborate, but how about we grab something to eat first? Brooding can’t be easy on an empty stomach, and after training with that crazy group of yours I could definitely go for a bite.” Clover continued smiling, flawless sparkling white teeth matching his uniform, and Qrow couldn’t help but hesitate at the sudden change of pace.

“I suppose it couldn’t hurt, but what’s your angle here?” There was a sense that Clover had some ulterior motive, and Qrow was unsure if he was comfortable going along with whatever plans he had. 

“To put it simply, I think we both have some things we need to get off our chest if we’re going to be able to work together moving forward. You’re right that I don’t know the full story behind those kids, or you for that matter, but you don’t know my story either, so it hardly seems fair for either of us to judge the other. That being said, I'm honestly pretty hungry, so why not get some grub while we talk?” Something about Clover’s upbeat attitude seemed to be rubbing off on Qrow, who could feel hunger in his own stomach growing. He felt guilty about his attitude towards Clover who was merely looking out for their group.

“Yeah, can’t argue with that.” With a deep breathe, Qrow did his best to relax his stance and purge as much negativity as he could. Feigning a smile, he gave a nod to Clover, who motioned for him to follow. As they walked, Qrow had expected them to turn towards the cafeteria, or even the Ace Ops quarters, but instead Clover took a turn towards the entrance to the academy. “Where are we…?”

“I’ve got a serious craving for a burger right now, and I know just the place.”

\---

As Clover gestured for Qrow to enter the building, Qrow couldn’t help but gawk at his surroundings. It had been a rather lengthy trip into the deeper parts of Atlas, far from the Academy where he’d been spending most of his time, and every few feet he found himself annoyed that they had to stop for Clover to sign autographs and take photographs with fans. It was moments like this he would reflexively reach towards his belt loop, only to realize he’d left his flask behind, and for good reason. With a heavy sigh, he’d continued to follow Clover in silence, unable to understand how this man kept such a positive attitude given the state of the world.

After crossing road after road, each building seemingly more pristine than the last, it became hard for Qrow to imagine any of these structures being so modest as to be a ‘burger place’. Then, stepping into an entryway, Clover had opened the door for Qrow to enter one of the fanciest dining establishments he’d ever seen. Blinking a few times, he couldn’t tell if Clover was messing with him or not, but reluctantly stepped inside all the same.

Immediately his nose twitched with the numerous smells that permeated the air. In an instant he felt his mouth fill with saliva, and he swallowed hard to avoid potentially drooling. As Clover stepped in beside him, he suddenly felt incredibly out of place. A few eyes fell on them, and as Qrow analyzed the other customers in the restaurant, he realized how underdressed he was. Even with Clover in a combat uniform, the immaculate state it was in, mixed with his endless charisma, made him stand out in a positive way even amongst the fancier crowd around them. Shrinking down slightly, Qrow let Clover take the lead as they took a table near the windows.

“You call this a burger joint?” As he took his seat opposite Clover, Qrow took more time to observe their surroundings. The tall ceiling of the structure had brilliant chandeliers hanging from above, endless crystals twinkling beneath skylights and giving the illusion as if they were dining beneath the stars. He could only imagine how beautiful it might look at night, and his gaze moved down the chiseled pillars that lined the walls down towards the sparkling floors beneath. Despite their purpose, he almost felt guilty having stepped across such a spotless surface.

“Yeah, I guess I can see how that’d be hard to believe, but trust me when I say there’s no better burger in Remnant.” Still wearing his sparkling smile, Clover raised a hand and gestured to a nearby waiter. At first, the man’s eyes fell on Qrow, the torn cape and dull colors causing him to stand out against the white of the structure. He made a bit of a sour face as his eyes scanned over the man, before turning to Clover and immediately seeming to perk up.

“Ah, Clover, to what do we owe the honor?” Immediately withdrawing a scroll, he smiled pleasantly at the esteemed leader of the Ace Ops. Qrow returned the man’s glare, giving him a once over and finding himself equally unimpressed. The waiter garb, no matter how fancy the suit, did nothing to compliment the man’s appearance. Instead, it only further made him seem inferior and subservient to the patrons, and Qrow simply rolled his eyes as Clover placed their order.

“Just treating my friend here. Could we get a pair of burgers, and then I’ll take-” Clover seemed like he was entering a routine order, though he suddenly froze up and his eyes briefly flicked to Qrow. “Waters please. I think that’ll get us started.”

“Of course.” With a bow, the waiter shot one more icy look to Qrow, before resuming his smiling and entering their order into the device. With his job finished, he stepped away to look over his other tables.

“What was that about?” Qrow frowned in Clover’s direction, and despite knowing what he was referring to, Clover attempted to deflect the question.

“Burger joint or not, a lot of these Atlas places can be a little snooty. Not big on outsiders y’know?” Clover chuckled slightly, though Qrow hardly seemed interested in his treatment by the waitstaff.

“You changed your order because of me didn’t you?” Qrow leaned back in his seat and rolled his eyes. “Listen, I appreciate the gesture but if you want a drink, get a drink. I can handle it.”

“I don’t doubt that.” Suddenly feeling almost trapped, as if either way he placed his order he’d be in a difficult position, Clover instead attempted to redirect the conversation once more. “Anyways, should we get down to it?”

“You mean the part where you throw out some half assed story about how growing up with a semblance like yours made life oh so hard? Where you never had to worry about a single thing and then had the audacity to tell me I need to spend more time with my loved ones? Yeah, let's get down to that. I’m on the edge of my seat already.” Qrow looked down at the table, sneered slightly, then glared out the window. Inside he’d almost wished that he was still drinking.

“Yeah, that part.” With a heavy sigh, Clover chuckled and shook his head before matching Qrow and staring absentmindedly out into the streets of Atlas. “Anyways, I guess you could say I did have a pretty easy time growing up. Middle class parents in Atlas are pretty much upper class for the rest of the world, and I never had any problems with my family. Past that, even with no siblings, I always had enough friends that I never really felt alone. Even before my semblance manifested, I guess I was always pretty lucky.”

Qrow rolled his eyes, already annoyed by the silver spoon Clover had been born with. His life with Raven in the bandit tribes had been far from easy, and when put into the context of the conversation, Qrow had always been fairly unlucky.

“Anyways, much like most of my peers I’d always dreamed of becoming a Huntsman and entering the military. Those early years practically flew by as we trained in everything from proper dining to swordplay to Grimm simulations and so on. Eventually it became time to unlock our semblances, but I’m sure that you’re more than aware that when it comes to a passive semblance it can be difficult to identify.” Clover lifted the four-leaf clover pin on his chest, a symbol of his semblance and of his very identity. “No super speed, I couldn’t perform magic or do any fancy teleporting, no extra durability, nada. At first, it felt like I might not even have a semblance.”

“Been there…” Qrow surprised Clover, and himself, as he interjected his own thoughts. “Sorry, continue.”

“Anyways, it took some time for my friends and I to notice the pattern. At first they’d always just thought I was good at everything, and even my ego blinded me to the truth. I’d just assumed that by some stroke of luck I was naturally talented at almost anything, but as it turns out that’s all it was. Luck.” Clover’s normally cheerful expression fell slightly, and he stared down at the table, lost in the memories of his past. “Once we figured it out, I was more popular than ever. My semblance affected not only myself, but those around me. People were actively going out of their way to spend time with me, but for all the wrong reasons.”

Furrowing his brow slightly, Qrow watched as the normally cheerful Clover expressed genuine pain. His face was heavy, and he shifted slightly in his seat unsure of how to respond.

“All my accolades, all luck. All my friends only continued to hang out with me for the luck I brought them. It didn’t take me much time at all to realize that everything positive in my life had been a total fluke. Honestly, I started to  _ intentionally _ try to fail. I turned cruel to my friends, did my best to fail as many tests as I could, blew off all my training, and yet everything just kept working out.” Placing his hands together on the table, Clover’s hands clenched tightly as he shook his head. “Sure, from the outside it might seem like I had it all, that I had no right to complain about the cards life had dealt me, but when every hand is a royal flush, why bother?”

Further shock flowed into Qrow as Clover shot him a cold look. It was an expression he didn’t think the man could wear, but the pain in his eyes told Qrow everything he needed to know. This was a man that knew loneliness like he did. This was a man that knew what it was like to be cursed.

“I’m sorry.” Clover loosened up slightly as Qrow apologized, sensing that he’d gotten his point across, and with a deep breath managed to resume wearing the smile he’d become known for.

“Still, eventually I figured that if this luck could be used for others, then that’s what I’d do. I’d volunteer for as many suicide missions as I could because I knew deep down things would work out. Joining the Ace Ops was a natural step, and when I was awarded this pin I felt something change. I’d accepted that I was being used, I  _ encouraged _ that people use me, if it meant that we never lost a comrade. So here I am, front lines in a war to save the world, and given my track record I’m pretty positive we’ll get through this just fine.” All the cold sorrow that had filled him mere moments ago had been buried deep by a charming smile and a burning confidence.

“Admirable, though I can’t exactly just give in to my semblance like you can. Yours works to your advantage when surrounded by friends, but mine only works to my advantage when surrounded by enemies. There’s a reason I spend my time alone. That’s my acceptance.” Qrow could tell Clover wasn’t entirely convinced, but before either of them could get a word in, the waiter returned with two dishes.

“Your meals, on the house.” With a polite bow towards Clover, the waiter gingerly placed two plates with enormous burgers and a serving of fries before each of them. “Thank you for your service.”

“Of course, and thank you.” With a polite nod towards the waiter, continuing to flash his infamous smile, the pair were left to their meals.

“Lucky us, free food.” Smirking at Clover, Qrow watched as he rolled his eyes and chuckled.

“Alright smartass, I guess I deserve that. Now hurry up and eat before it gets cold, and then it's your turn to regale me with  _ your _ history.” Clover raised a brow as he watched Qrow stare down at the burger. It almost looked identical to the sorts of fantastical burgers you see in advertisements, the type that’s clearly been dressed up to draw in customers but never looks the same in person. This burger however, it was the real deal, and as Qrow lifted the tower of meat, veggies, and sauce towards his lips, Clover couldn’t help but stare patiently, waiting for his reaction.

It was bliss, pure and simple. In all his travels across Remnant, from seedy taverns to high class Mistral establishments, he’d never tasted a burger so amazing. The meat was tender and juicy, the cheese complimenting the texture perfectly along with the crunch of the vegetables. Every chew mixed the ingredients around in his mouth, coating his tongue with a different mixture of flavors, each more sublime than the last. It was difficult for him to find the will to even swallow, wanting to savor the flavor for as long as possible, but as he gulped down the first bite of the burger, he noticed the man across from him staring intently.

“So?” There was a certain cocky nature to Clover as he glanced over at Qrow. His brow was raised as he waited for the man’s response.

“It’s good.” Qrow did his best to hide his true thoughts on the burger, but as Clover continued to stare, he eventually gave in. “Alright fine, you’re right. I’ve had a lot of burgers in my time but you’re right. Best burger in Remnant.”

Without any further hesitation, Qrow leaned forward to take another enormous bite from his burger, though he noticed that Clover was still staring at him. Swallowing hard, unable to fully enjoy the food with the man’s eyes so intently on him, he glared back as he washed down the burger with a gulp of water.

“What? Something on my face?” Qrow immediately picked up a napkin and started dabbing it across his face, though there were no signs of grease or sauce to be found.

“You could say that.” Leaning back in his seat, Clover chuckled slightly as he reached down to pick up his own burger. “In this short time I’ve known you, I think that’s the first genuine smile I’ve ever seen.”

Still smirking, Clover took a massive bite of his own burger, watching as Qrow quickly suppressed the grin he hadn’t even realized he’d been wearing. This only caused Clover to chuckle harder between bites, much to Qrow’s embarrassment.

“Hey, it’s a good burger, can you blame me?” Slightly flustered, a feeling Qrow rarely - if ever - felt, he instead redirected his focus to the burger to avoid further conversation. At least for now.

Noting his focus, Clover accepted this truce and withheld further comments for the remainder of the meal. The pair ate in silence, and before either of them knew it, the burgers and fries had all but vanished. Qrow was almost disappointed, that such a perfect meal was gone so quickly, and while he debated ordering another his full stomach disagreed. The pair let out sighs of satisfaction, leaning back in their seats with proper manners tossed aside. 

“Guess it’s my turn then, isn’t it?” Qrow’s good mood only lasted so long as he realized that with the final bites of their food taken, it was his turn to share his side of things with Clover, and he sat up with a groan.

“I’d certainly appreciate it.” Sitting up, Clover too took on a more serious expression as he prepared for Qrow’s tale.

“I guess I can skip over a lot of my childhood. I grew up in bandit camps with my sister, the shining prodigy of our tribe, and for the most part it was fairly uneventful. However, as decent as the two of us were at combat, Huntsman were a growing threat to our way of life. Not exactly keen on theft and kidnapping, we had eyes on us to keep us in check, so Raven and I decided to learn from our enemy to better fight back.” Qrow chuckled slightly, nostalgia from a lifetime ago feeling so much simpler a time. “Using some falsified paperwork we got our way through combat school, and eventually made our way to Beacon to train as Huntsman under Oz.”

“Anyways, like you said finding my semblance was tough. Even once we’d formed a team at Beacon, Team STRQ, I still had no idea what my semblance was. I felt inferior to my sister, and to my team, but eventually we too started to notice a certain pattern. That misfortune followed me everywhere I went.” Shaking his head, it was Qrow’s turn to make a stern and saddened face.

“What sorts of things happened?” Clover tilted his head, curious as to the types of misfortune that had revealed Qrow’s semblance.

“At first it was funny things; chairs giving out in class or people slipping in the halls. Innocent things, though it might’ve been at that point that I already began to feel the truth of my semblance. It seemed like such a ridiculous ability that I pushed such thoughts aside. Eventually though, things started happening in live combat. Opponents would have their weapons jam, or their footing give out, things that felt lucky to me. That is, until it started happening to my friends.”

“If there was ever a time one would need luck on their side, it’s in the middle of a battle with Grimm. Surrounded and outnumbered, we were confident in our abilities, but no amount of talent can cover for a series of unfortunate circumstances. Grippings falling out, random tunnels in the ground breaking apart beneath us, and more weapon jamming, I honestly thought that one of our first missions was going to be our last. If you were to list off everything that could’ve gone wrong, every box would be checked aside from death.”

“So what’d you do?” Clover frowned slightly, understanding Qrow’s desire to avoid his friends and family a little better. However, his own desire to always push past difficult circumstances made him curious if Qrow held such determination. At the very least, he’d made it this far.

“Honestly, I tried to hurt myself.” Panic immediately came over Clover and Qrow met his eyes, quickly waving his hands in a calming manner. “Not like killing myself or anything, but trying to break my aura.”

“What? Why would you do that?” The baffled expression of Clover caused Qrow to chuckle slightly.

“Cause I was a brat that didn’t know any better. I’d assumed that my semblance, like others, relied on aura. That if I constantly shattered my own aura, then my semblance couldn’t hurt anybody. I’d activate it, and just keep bashing away at myself until it broke. It was the only way I felt safe even leaving my room.” Qrow chuckled and looked at his wrists. Without the healing properties of aura, they would’ve probably been coated in scars.

“That’s now how passive semblances work though… Aura or not…” Clover furrowed his brow in concern as he watched Qrow roll down his sleeves to hide away his pale arms. Chuckling once more, Qrow nodded.

“Yeaah. Yeah. I found that out the hard way. Despite my confidence strutting around with a shattered aura misfortune still continued to follow me everywhere I went. I was so convinced that at this point this was just your run of the mill bad luck that happened to everyone, but denial can only get a person so far.” Qrow let out another heavy sigh as his brief chuckles at his own ignorance faded away. “Eventually a friend of mine found out, our team leader in fact, and talked me through it. Something about her just had this way of bringing out the joy in people. Even a gloomy guy like me managed to keep a high chin and a smile when she was around.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear you didn’t have a totally awful time. Where’s your friend now?” Clover smiled softly, hoping that memories of this friend would pull Qrow out of the despair he constantly put himself in. Instead, he watched as the expression only grew more pained.

“She’s gone.”

“Oh.” Clover found himself unable to speak once more, and he merely sat back in his seat.

“It’s okay, you don’t need to worry. Summer died a long time ago, so I’ve already had time to grieve.” Qrow smiled softly, thinking back on happier times when Team STRQ was still together, before Clover stood with a newfound energy.

“Well that settles it then.” Qrow was surprised by the man’s ability to bounce back from even the darkest of conversations, and while unsure of what he meant, stood as well.

“Settles what?” With a tilt of his head, Qrow watched as Clover gestured to the empty dishes still on the table.

“We just have to come back, that’s all.” Despite the confidence behind his statement, Qrow was unable to follow Clover’s line of thought, and continued to just give the man a confused stare.

“The hell are you talking about?”

“This is the first time I’ve seen you have any trace of joy in you since you got to Atlas, so, if you don’t have anybody else to fall back on, I guess I’ll just have to keep treating you to burgers. Sound like a deal?” Extending a hand, Clover continued to beam at Qrow, who rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. It wasn’t exactly his scene to visit restaurants with his associates, even in the days of STRQ he didn’t go out to eat very often at all, but glance back at the confident smile of Clover he found himself unable to turn down the offer.

“Fine, you’ve got yourself a deal. I’d have to be a lunatic to turn down a burger like that, especially when you’re paying.” Reaching forward, Qrow gripped Clover’s hand tight and shook. “Next time don’t hold back on getting a drink though.”

“You got it.”


	5. Awkward Getting to Know You Stuff

It was hard to believe, as she stood staring across the cafeteria, that the girl her eyes rested on could wear such a smile after shedding so many tears. Weiss’s eyes were glued to Ilia, who was grinning eagerly as her eyes scanned numerous dessert options, and she couldn’t help but wonder how much Ilia had really recovered since their time alone in the training hall. Lost in these thoughts, Weiss absentmindedly filled her tray, not realizing that in that moment someone else was focusing on her until a voice practically whispered into her ear.

“Hey, is she doing okay?”

A sudden wave of shock went through Weiss at the sudden proximity of another person, and it took everything Weiss had not to spill her tray. Quickly composing herself, regaining her posture and ensuring that her food had remained in place, Weiss was surprised to find that it was Blake standing a mere inch behind her. Eyes wide by the sudden presence of her teammate, it took her a moment to register the question, but as she followed Blake’s gaze she realized that the faunus girl was also staring in Ilia’s direction.

“Oh, umm.” Pursing her lips, Weiss was unsure of how to respond. Despite the cheerful exterior Ilia was displaying at that moment, she couldn’t help but linger on the memories of the girl weeping in her arms less than an hour ago. “I think so, but I won’t know for sure until tomorrow. As far as I know, this will be her first time visiting the site since the accident, but I’ll be there for her through all of it.”

Giving a comforting smile back to Blake, the faunus girl nodded, though something else seemed to be occupying her thoughts. Weiss waved a hand in front of her face, causing her to snap to.

“How about you? Are _you_ okay?” Weiss’s smile turned thin as she watched Blake shake her head and give a false laugh.

“Oh, yeah. I was just thinking about something else is all, I’m good.” Blake brushed some hair from her face and quickly pretended to be interested in the food beside them, but Weiss merely raised a brow and placed a hand on her hip.

“You know, given your history, I’d honestly expect you to be better at lying.” Smirking slightly, Weiss watched as Blake’s ears drooped, and she found herself repeating her earlier actions with Ilia as she tried to make proper eye contact with the girl before her.

“I’m sorry, it’s just something I’d rather not talk about with so many people around. Do you think we could talk about this later?” Blake gave a pleading look to Weiss who gave a concerned nod.

“I suppose, but wouldn’t-” Weiss sighed, feeling as if she already had a great deal on her plate, and was hoping that whatever was going on they could handle it then and there. She knew Blake was right however, in that there were quite a number of people around them in the packed cafeteria. With the amount of attention their group had on it, there was no doubt that ears were focused on them, even if eyes were not. Before she could finish her thought however, someone shouted in their direction and promptly ended the discussion.

“Blake, they have  _ sixteen _ different kinds of fish, you’ve got to see this!” Yang was carrying a tray over her head stacked with various sizes, shapes, and colorations of fish. Blake’s jaw immediately fell open in desire.

“I’ll be right there! Grab as many as you can!” Turning back to Weiss, Blake gave her a reaffirming nod. “I promise, I’ll get back to you later okay?”

Before Weiss could get another word in, Blake had all but vanished, and in an instant was at Yang’s side.

“Now that’s about what I’d expect.” Muttering quietly to herself, Weiss chuckled at the girl’s particular tastes, before nearly spilling her tray once more. Ilia, similar to Blake, had suddenly seemed to appear by her side. Fortunately Ilia hadn’t whispered into her ear, but her sudden presence was still enough to catch Weiss entirely off guard. Taking a deep breath, closing her eyes to calm down, Weiss looked at the bemused expression Ilia was wearing.

“You alright?” Ilia chuckled, and despite not having moved to the seating area of the cafeteria, scooped a handful of minty ice-cream from a dish on her tray into her mouth with a smile and a chill.

“I should be asking  _ you _ that question.” With a raised brow, Weiss glanced down at the tray almost entirely composed of sweets, and then looked back up at Ilia. Her eyes went wide as she followed Weiss’s train of thought, and the speckles across her body turned a bright pink.

“No, it’s not like that I swear! It’s just, if there’s one thing Atlas does right, it’s dessert.” Pouting slightly, seeing Weiss continue to show amusement as she attempted to defend herself, Ilia grumbled and ate another spoonful. Shrugging towards the exit, her body resumed its natural coloration, and Weiss giggled as the pair began to walk.

“All I’m saying is I let her win a few to keep things interesting!” As Weiss and Ilia approached the table with the majority of their companions, they couldn’t help but overhear as Nora explained the ‘truth’ behind her loss from earlier. Between mouthfuls of food, Nora told the tale of how she threw a few of the competitions against Elm, and how if one counted the pancakes she’d given up then technically she was the winner of their competition.

“I don’t think that’s…” Jaune frowned, thinking over the explanation in his mind, but immediately froze up as his eyes met Nora’s. It was a fear like none he’d ever felt before, and he gulped heavily before retracting his statement. “I mean, yeah, makes total sense to me!”

The group let out a wave of laughter, Jaune thankful that Nora’s focus had returned to her food, when he felt a vibration in his pocket. Confused, he looked around the table, and then towards Blake and Yang who were following shortly behind Weiss and Ilia. With nearly every member of their group present he wondered who could be messaging him. His first thoughts went to Oscar or even Qrow, but he couldn’t imagine why either of them would message him, at least before messaging anybody else.

As the rest of the group continued to discuss the earlier match, as well as their eagerness for the upcoming ball, Jaune withdrew his scroll and opened the message. To his surprise, it was a message from Ciel.

_ “Jaune Arc, please meet me at my dormitory located in Building 3, fourth floor, Room 421. We will spend this time going over the itinerary for the week. Arrive at promptly 1400. -Ciel Soleil.” _

As Jaune read once more over the message, he was unsure which surprised him more: the fact that Ciel had his contact information despite the pair never once discussing it, or the fact she’d sent such a message a mere 10 minutes before the meeting time.

“I uhh, I’ve gotta go.” Standing up quickly, Jaune shoved a mouthful of the chicken nuggets he’d selected for lunch into his mouth and turned to run. Before he got more than a few feet, Weiss shouted in his direction.

“Where do you think you’re going? We have dance practice immediately after lunch! Unless you’re going to get-”

“ _ Winter’s Breeze _ !  _ A Dusty Dream _ !  _ Blizzard’s Kiss _ !” Jaune shouted muffled titles of the songs listed for the ball and with each title performed a dance move as he ran unique to each song. Weiss couldn’t help but admit she was particularly impressed with his pirouette at the end, and in a brief moment where she blinked away her disbelief, he’d vanished from the cafeteria.

“Well that was something…” As the surprise faded from Weiss, she quickly turned her head to the group and repeated her headcount. Letting out a groan of frustration she pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a sigh. “And now, we’re an odd number, which means one of us is going to have to share.”

In a flash Ruby was by her side gripping her arm. Weiss’s eye twitched as she realized that not only would she be the best partner for Ruby, as this girl would likely need more help than anyone else, but that this would result in her spending less time with Ilia. Frowning, she turned to her girlfriend, who was giggling at the situation.

“Well, she  _ is _ your partner isn’t she?” Weiss rolled her eyes as Ilia continued to laugh before tearing Ruby from her side.

“Fine, but you had better be the epitome of elegance today, otherwise you’ll just have to dance with a broom the next time you’re without a partner. Understood?” Crossing her arms, Weiss watched as Ruby nodded her head and saluted Weiss.

“Understood!” With Ruby grinning ear to ear, Weiss couldn’t find it in her heart to stay annoyed at her future pupil, and resumed seating to finish her meal.

“Anyone else curious about where Jaune went off to in such a rush?” Yang was still staring off at the hallway Jaune had exited down, a curious tilt to her head. “I’ve never seen him run, or uhh, dance so fast before. I didn’t know he had it in him.”

“Oooh, I bet he’s off to see his new lady friend! Gotta get his  _ smooch _ on!” Wrapping her arms around herself, Nora began to make a series of loud noises vaguely resembling kissing. Ren sighed and put his head in his palm, before also glancing off in the direction of Jaune.

“I don’t think so. At least, not yet.” Despite the rather upbeat attitude at the table, there was something in Ren’s voice that seemed to shift the mood. Furrowing his brow, he looked to Nora, who lowered her arms and matched his expression.

“Oh.” Sharing a look, the pair gazed at the exit to the cafeteria with heavy hearts. “Stay strong big guy…”

\---

Across the building, Jaune was wheezing as he braced himself against the wall of what he believed to be the correct hallway to meet Ciel. His eyes scanned the room numbers as he stumbled forward, the exhaustion of the day catching up with him as he did his best to catch his breath. Checking his scroll, he was thankful that at least there was a minute left, and he stood with his hands on his hips to try and give the illusion that he wasn’t dying on the inside. With a light knock at the door, it opened at his touch after the first knock, and Ciel stood at attention before him.

“Perfect timing. An admirable quality. Now, please come inside and I’ll get the paperwork ready.” Turning from Jaune, Ciel entered the dorm and turned a corner, briefly leaving Jaune’s line of sight. With a moment to himself, Jaune wheezed a little more before collecting himself and stepping inside. Ciel’s dorm was identical to his own, with four bunks in the wall, a washroom to the side, as well as several desks lining the walls, but to his surprise there was only one bed and one table with anything on them.

“Are we uhh, alone?” Suddenly feeling self conscious being alone with Ciel and no Penny to help guide him through their interactions, he turned to Ciel who suddenly shoved an enormous stack of papers into his arms. With a heavy  _ oof _ Jaune stumbled back, doing his best to balance the pile.

“Will that be a problem? Personally, I enjoy the privacy. It will allow us to better use our time to effectively stick to the schedule I’ve planned out.” With a straight face, not the tiniest hint of a smile, Ciel gestured to a desk behind Jaune and nodded her head. Blinking for a moment, Jaune looked back down to the paperwork, and then to the table.

“What uhh, what’s this?” Of all the things Jaune had expected to occur in meeting Ciel to discuss their week, filling out forms hadn’t once crossed his mind.

“This is a contract specifying the exact day to day activities we’ll be participating in together leading up to and including the ball. Furthermore there is a list of behaviors that are and are not acceptable, as well as several things that will be left up to my discretion and may change at a moment's notice. Today will be spent reading through the document, which I’ve detailed as taking up to several hours, and tomorrow will begin a variety of lessons including how to dine properly as well as how to execute the expected dances during the event. Does this sound acceptable thus far?” Practically forcing Jaune into his seat, Ciel stood with her hands behind her back and looked between him and the contract. Flipping randomly through the sheet, Jaune could see that days had been planned down to the very minute, and he suddenly felt overwhelmed. However, as Ciel finished her spiel, he grinned widely and turned to her.

“Actually, I already know how to perform all the dances listed. You see, I grew up with seven sisters and, well, things happen.” Chuckling to himself, feeling a combination of pride and embarrassment regarding his childhood, Jaune had hoped that sharing this detail would help Ciel ease up a little. The amount of time they’d save without having to practice the dances was something he’d imagine would thrill her, but instead she simply seemed to freeze.

“I see.” Ciel stared at the stack of papers, her eyes glossing over, and Jaune’s smiled faltered at the reaction.

“Uhh, Ciel? You okay?” Giving an awkward chuckle, Jaune watched as Ciel moved in total silence towards the desk. Collecting the stack of papers into her arms, she moved towards a trash bin in the corner and dumped the entire pile in. “Hey wait! What are you doing?”

“Unfortunately it seems I underestimated you. I had imagined we’d need quite a bit of time to ensure proper execution of all required moves, and given your somewhat clumsy nature and combat performance I had assumed, well, it doesn’t matter. For now, I request that you leave until such time as I can format a new document taking into account this new information.” Her words were shaky, and Jaune could see emotion in Ciel’s eyes as she turned to escort him from the room, though it was far from the expression he’d been hoping she’d have.

“Woah wait, you’re kicking me out?” Even with his nervous and awkward nature, Jaune couldn’t deny that he’d been the littlest bit eager to get to know what kind of person Ciel was. After all, strangers were just friends you hadn’t met yet, and Jaune was hoping that by the end of the day he’d be able to call Ciel a friend. Instead, as if a testament to his luck, things seemed to have gone as disastrous as possible despite his best intentions. He could only imagine Nora’s response to discovering he’d been kicked out after barely a minute of conversation, and dug his feet into the floor to avoid being pulled any closer to the door.

“I must insist that you go. I’ve already suffered enough humiliation, now please allow me to rectify my error  _ alone _ .” Although Ciel continued to request he leave, she was no longer attempting to force him from her dorm, and instead simply stood there feeling a mix of shame and frustration.

“I mean, we don’t need some silly schedule telling us how to spend out time together, do we?” Jaune attempted to lighten the mood, raising the tone of his voice and putting on a smile once more. In an instant Ciel shot him a cold look, and he took a step back shaking his head. “Not that your schedule was silly! Quite the opposite in fact! Well detailed and uhh…”

Jaune lowered his arms with a sigh, realizing that the more he tried to fix the situation, the deeper the hole it felt like he was digging. At this point, he wouldn’t be surprised if Ciel simply decided he wasn’t worth her time, and he took a deep breath before gesturing back inside the dorm.

“Listen, can we talk for a moment? No schedules, no plans, just some good old fashioned chit chat. Is that alright?” Still attempting a small smile, hoping that he could somehow salvage this encounter, Jaune watched as Ciel seemed to contemplate his offer.

“Well…” Reflexively Ciel lifted her arm to check her watch, though her heart sank as she registered the meaningless nature of the action. She’d planned so much of the day, the majority of which would be spent discussing the schedule for the week, and suddenly there was not only a few minutes, but several hours worth of unscheduled time. It was a situation Ciel had never faced before, and for a moment she wasn’t unsure of how to respond. However, her panic attack stalled as she suddenly felt a warm sensation wrap around her hand, and she glanced down to see Jaune had taken her hand into his own.

“Trust me.” In her mind, Ciel felt the natural thing to do would be to tear her hand away, but something about the warmth it provided in her dire situation caused her to reconsider. Instead, her blue eyes followed the arm up to Jaune’s face, and in his smile she found a sense of comfort. Loosening her shoulders somewhat, Ciel nodded slowly, causing Jaune to smile brighter.

“Very well. I suppose there’s no harm in simply sitting down to talk given the sudden vast amount of free time I have. However, if I find the situation to be outside of acceptable boundaries I will once again request that you leave, and I assure you I’m not afraid to resort to force if need be.” Narrowing her eyes slightly, though still allowing her hand to be taken by Jaune, Ciel stared at the boy who simply gave a weak laugh and nodded.

“I promise you I have no intention of doing anything outside of talking.” Analyzing his expression, Ciel stared deep into Jaune’s dark blue eyes, and was unable to find even the tiniest hint of deception. Satisfied with his response, Ciel allowed herself to be escorted back into the common area of the dorm where the pair pulled a set of desk seats close to one another.

For a few moments, there was simply silence. Neither knew exactly what to say despite having agreed to talk, Ciel once more checking her watch out of habit, when suddenly Jaune extended a hand.

“Jaune Arc.” Once more with a smile on his face, Ciel looked to Jaune and his outstretched hand unsure of the purpose of his actions.

“I know?” Tilting her head in confusion, Ciel watched as Jaune’s smile faltered slightly.

“Ah, what I mean is, I didn’t get to properly introduce myself when we first met. You sorta seemed to know everything about me already, but I wanted to officially introduce myself. The name’s Jaune Arc, and it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Still with his hand out, Jaune’s grin widened once more, and Ciel was briefly caught off guard by a smile of her own.

“Ciel Soleil.” Pursing her lips, Ciel did her best to return to a neutral expression, though she extended a hand of her own to shake Jaune’s. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I apologize if it felt as if you couldn’t introduce yourself prior, I was merely in a hurry and…”

Ciel trailed off, withdrawing her hand and feeling at a loss. She’d never had to apologize in such a fashion for sticking to her schedule before, and frankly she wasn’t sure how to continue the conversation.

“Well, we’ve got time now don’t we?”

It was hard for Ciel to believe that she suddenly  _ had _ time. Her days had always been scheduled to have at most a handful of minutes between certain activities should she complete something ahead of schedule. Even then she often kept in mind that possibility and scheduled accordingly, doing her best to minimize any and all blank spaces in her day to day.  _ Having _ time was a foreign concept to her, and she simply sat there in silence, unsure of what to do.

“So uh, I mean I guess you already know pretty much everything about me, so tell me something about you? If we’re going to be dancing together I think it only makes sense I know at least a little, right?” Sensing her discomfort, Jaune attempted to keep the conversation going, though he was unsure where to draw the line in terms of acceptable dialogue. He’d hoped it didn’t sound accusatory mentioning that she knew quite a bit about him already, but perhaps letting her open up about herself would ease the tension in the room.

“I didn’t know about your sisters…” Ciel bit her lip, feeling as if she’d failed some critical intelligence gathering operation in regards to missing such an important detail. Jaune had always seemed less than interesting compared to his companions, in particular Pyrrha Nikos, and therefore data on him had been kept at a minimum. Such thoughts had been a mistake that had cost her a great deal of time and effort. “Regardless, what do you wish to know regarding myself?”

“Anything I guess, though I’m not really sure where to start. I guess, uhh, have any siblings?”

“No.”

“How about pets?”

“None.”

Sensing that simple yes or no questions weren’t exactly going in his favor, Jaune decided on a question that might prompt a more specific response, though he worried it wasn’t exactly creative.

“Got a...favorite color?” Feeling stupid merely for asking such a question, Jaune watched as Ciel seemed to light up briefly. Glancing down to her skirt, she brushed a thumb along the perfectly ironed fabric and smiled.

“I suppose I’ve always been somewhat partial to blue. My mother always said it helped bring out my eyes.” Blinking for a moment, Ciel pursed her lips once more and looked away in embarrassment. She’d ended up lost in a memory and shared more than she had originally intended.

“She was right.” Turning back to Jaune, Ciel brushed her navy hair from her face, meeting his eyes briefly. Jaune’s cheeks turned red and it was his turn to quickly turn away. “I mean, your eyes are pretty, and blue. I mean obviously, but I mean while wearing blue, they look even  _ more _ blue and pretty. Does that make sense?”

Seeing Jaune suddenly so shy caused Ciel to let slip a laugh. Her eyes went wide as she quickly covered her mouth, and Jaune paused briefly at the sound. Letting out a cough, Ciel returned to her thin lipped default expression, though Jaune’s cheeks remained bright.

“Hey, there’s something else I’ve been meaning to ask if it’s okay.” Jaune’s eyes moved from Ciel to the room around them. “Where’s the rest of your team at? I mean, the dorms are designed for teams of four right?”

“Ah.” Ciel’s lips broke down into a frown as she glanced at the empty bunks. Her eyes seemed to gloss over once more, briefly recalling a memory from long ago, before she shook her head and did her best to hide her emotions. “It’s been a long time since these bunks were filled. I’ve been on my own here for quite a while, not that I’ve minded, but I certainly did enjoy the time I had with my team.”

“What were they like?” Jaune leaned forward, a wavering smile as he prepared for the worst, though Ciel simply shook her head.

“Well I’m sure you’re already quite familiar with Penny. Her bunk was directly above mine, though she very rarely slept in it. At the time I was unaware of her true nature, or the reason why two graduated soldiers were on my team as well, but for some reason I was suddenly promoted several ranks above my fellow Huntsman in training. We’re trained not to question orders, so I simply accepted things as they were and reaped the rewards. That is, until I failed the mission I was blissfully unaware had been placed upon me.” While Ciel had done her best to conceal her feelings, sadness filled her eyes as she stared downwards at the marbled floors. Jaune took a moment, trying to guess what she was referring to, when he felt his heart sink to the floor.

“I’ve always felt like I was a good soldier. Always training, never late, following orders precisely as they’re given, and yet despite all of that I failed the one true test that had been laid out before me. The night of the match between Miss Nikos and Penny I lost the closest thing to a friend I’d ever had in an instant, and in all the chaos that ensued I hadn’t even a moment to grieve. Atlas military seemed to turn on civilians, Grimm around every corner, and the only concerns of the soldiers by my side were to evacuate as quickly as possible. Before I knew it I was back in Atlas, safe and sound, but from that day forward I found myself alone and without any explanation.” Ciel shook her head, brow furrowed in frustration as she balled up her skirt in her hands.

“But she came back, right?” Jaune did his best to keep his personal feelings of the night aside. There was a certain unfairness that he refrained from mentioning, but it remained in the back of his mind as she spoke. Instead, he did his best to try and provide comfort to Ciel as she took a heavy breath.

“You are correct. A short time after the fall of Beacon, Penny’s core was announced to have been successfully recovered from the ruins before the worst of the Grimm attack. Unfortunately, I found myself suddenly incapable of accessing data that was once open to me, and it wasn’t until the announcement that Penny had returned as the Protector of Mantle that I even knew she was alive again. I simply wasn’t deemed worthy to keep in the loop anymore.” Realizing how tense she’d become, Ciel released the grip on her skirt and did her best to pat away any wrinkles that may have formed.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Jaune scooted his chair closer, reaching out to place a gentle hand on Ciel’s, and she simply shrugged.

“It’s alright. As a soldier, it’s not my place to question the way things went, although…” Another shaky breath escaped Ciel as she squeezed Jaune’s hand tightly. “I just wish they could’ve let me know that my friend was okay.”

It was impressive to Jaune that Ciel was able to keep herself composed after sharing such information. Her breathing had become shaky, but not once did she shed a tear.

“How very Ironwood.” Jaune’s voice was icy, to Ciel’s surprise, and she looked back up at his frustrated gaze.

“Excuse me?” In Ciel’s eyes, General Ironwood was a man deserving of the utmost respect, and to hear his name spoken with such a tone felt almost blasphemous. It was a tone that, if spoken by a soldier, would result in an immediate demotion or even a court martial.

“Ah, it’s nothing. I just wish you didn’t have to go through all of this alone. If my friend that I thought was gone was suddenly back again, well…” Jaune trailed off, doing his best to avoid saying more than he should. His frustrations with the General as well as the majority of 'mentors' that had been looking over them for the past few years had threatened to boil over, but it was not his right to break trust or share the secrets revealed to their group.

“Well, that’s very kind of you.” Ciel decided that she would let Jaune’s comment regarding General Ironwood slide given the circumstances. She wasn’t blind to the fact that Jaune had lost someone that night as well, stories of Pyrrka Nikos’s death having spread rapidly through all of Remnant even with the downed CCT Tower.

“Whoo, that got heavy didn’t it?” Chuckling awkwardly, Jaune smacked his cheeks to calm himself, and did his best to force a smile. The conversation had unexpectedly gone to a rather dark place, and he'd hoped a smile would bring the mood back up.

“I suppose it did, though I will admit, I haven’t disliked the opportunity to share.” Her own cheeks turning a shade pinker, Ciel brushed her hair from her face and looked towards the window. “Thank you for this. I’m glad I decided to trust you, though I will admit I’m at a loss of how to proceed.”

Glancing back towards the bin with her original and now void contract, Ciel couldn’t help but mourn the wasted effort.

“What do you mean?” Following her gaze, Jaune felt guilty about the amount of effort she’d put into the contract and wondered how much time she’d put into something he’d torn to pieces in an instant. “I mean, we could just keep doing what we’re doing. Though, ideally a little more cheerful next time.”

“Continue our time like this? I suppose I could schedule some more time to talk through the week. Do you have any particular times that are most appropriate?” Ciel immediately glanced at her watch and began to map out the next several days in her head when Jaune reached forward and put a hand over the silver piece on her wrist.

“I uhh, I don’t know. I’m honestly at the whim of my team and whatever the Ace Ops decide to throw our way.” Jaune watched as the eager light in Ciel’s eyes dimmed briefly. “How about this! Next time I’m free, I’ll send you a message on your scroll, and if you have the time or can schedule some time, we’ll do this again. Does that work?”

“Normally I would prefer something a little more concrete, though I suppose given the circumstances I can’t blame you for not having a precise schedule to provide me.” With a slow nod, Ciel thought over the situation, and nervously accepted Jaune’s proposition. “That said, I suppose your terms are acceptable, though don’t be surprised if I’m unable to squeeze you in at a moment's notice. My duties as a soldier will always take priority over recreational activities.”

“That works for me, I’ll take it!” Jaune’s bright smile had returned once more, and he stood from his seat feeling like they’d entered an awkward goodbye of sorts. “I should probably get back to my team now, I sorta ran off without an explanation and I wouldn’t want to worry them.”

“Of course. I do apologize for the short notice, I had just finished the contract and honestly was rather eager to begin going over the details of how our week would proceed. If you’ll allow me I’d still like to create some form of documentation for certain protocols to follow.” Ciel stood as well, resuming her somewhat neutral expression, and followed Jaune as he made his way towards the doorway to her dorm.

“Protocols?” Jaune wondered what else Ciel could possibly want to write up, though as he looked to her for clues he watched her shy away briefly.

“Merely stating the limits of certain contact between us. Of course some will be required if we’re to be dance partners, however there are other specific actions performed by those considered to be a couple that may fall outside the realm of what I’ll allow. For example, today there were precisely three instances in which your hand made unwarranted contact with my own, as well as the fact that you did not leave my presence when requested.” Ciel’s eyes looked to Jaune, who did his best to look innocent of the crimes he was accused of. Her stare at first was firm, though it softened into a slight smile as the door to her dorm opened and Jaune stepped into the hall. “Although, I suppose having not read or signed the contract, I can’t exactly hold you liable now can I?”

“I guess, though I’m really sorry if I overstepped or did anything wrong. Honestly, I was just trying to help.” Jaune frowned slightly, wondering if he’d crossed the line at any point, though Ciel simply shook her head and smiled.

“It’s fine. The justification of your actions is acceptable, don't worry. You’re sweet Jaune, and I had a nice time simply talking with you.” The smile lingered, and Jaune couldn’t help but smile back. “I hope the remainder of your day is pleasant and I look forward to our next encounter.”

“Yeah, me too.” With that, the door closed between them, and Jaune let out a heavy sigh of relief that things had gone well after all. Departing down the halls Jaune found that he had the tiniest hint of feelings that he hadn’t had in quite a long time, and despite the joy they brought, deep down he wondered if it was okay. These thoughts began to swirl within his mind, though despite everything going on inside, he didn’t stop smiling once as he went to find the rest of his group.


	6. Memories

Ilia stretched, a yawn escaping her mouth as one arm reached up towards the ceiling and the other scratched at the hip of her exposed midriff. Her body was tired from the prior days training, including both the early time with the Ace Ops as well as the dance lessons that took place later in the day. When she’d imagined dance lessons with Weiss somehow she’d expected things to be more casual and fun, but Weiss had worked the entire group to the bone, taking extra time to focus on Ruby. As she stared at the back of her girlfriend who led the way through the halls of the academy, she couldn’t help but find herself once again impressed with the seemingly endless skills she possessed.

Fortunately for all their sakes the dance lessons came to an end when Jaune returned to the dorm. Interest in how his time with Ciel went quickly took over and even Weiss gladly halted their session in order to listen in on how things had gone. To their surprise Jaune shared that he’d almost been kicked out as quickly as he’d arrived, but just as swiftly turned the situation back around to manage a pleasant, though somewhat heavy, conversation. She couldn’t help but recall her time spent getting to know Weiss and was internally thankful there hadn’t even been a whiff of paperwork.

Still lost in thought she absentmindedly bumped into the back of Weiss who had suddenly stopped and turned to face a door. Weiss gave her a bemused look as Ilia quickly took a step back and did her best to look innocent, only for Weiss to chuckle and turn back to the door. A series of light raps with her knuckle and the door would open sideways, the words ‘Atlas Lab #4’ fading behind the wall that the door slid into.

“Ah! Ladies, you’re right on time. I just finished the requests on your uniform Miss Amitola, and might I say I think I’ve outdone myself.” Greeting the pair was Dr. Pietro Polendina, whose mobile chair stepped out of the way to allow the two to enter.

“I really appreciate this, you really didn’t have to.” Pursing her lips, Ilia thanked Dr. Polendina, though she felt a small amount of guilt for the amount of work that must’ve gone into her somewhat unique request. It wasn’t as if she knew him or Penny all that well, so the fact he’d gone so far out of his way to upgrade her equipment sat uncomfortably within her gut. All the same, he simply smiled and waved off her concerns.

“Nonsense! Even if it hasn’t been for very long, you’re still a friend of my daughter. Besides, this was quite the interesting request, and I’m  _ always  _ eager to be back in the lab.” His smile comforted Ilia who simply nodded, and as the door closed behind them, the pair followed Pietro as his mechanical walker made its way further into the lab.

“What  _ did _ you ask for anyways?” Weiss’s eyes moved to Ilia’s waist, where her weapon remained in a compressed form strapped to her belt.

“Well I couldn’t really think of anything for Lightning Lash, so I thought I’d get some better attire to fight in.” Patting the weapon at her hip gently, Ilia smiled soft as her eyes scanned the lab for any signs of her new outfit. With the number of computer systems lining the walls and glass cases containing numerous prototype weapons, she wondered what other sorts of things Dr. Polendina designed in his spare time. He  _ was _ the man that had designed Penny, and that alone had her curiosity piqued.

“Now then, where…ah!” Dr. Polendina’s chair approached a wall lined with small panels, and he stroked his beard as he squinted through oval spectacles to read the numbers lining each. After a moment of pause, his face lit up as he reached forward and tapped a single button at the top of one such panel, a brief hissing of air as it slid to the side and a silver metal case slid free from its storage. “Now, unfortunately it wasn’t possible to simply modify your original gear, so I had to create an entirely new one from scratch. At the very least, your old one is folded neatly beneath the new should you ever decide you prefer the original.”

With a wide and somewhat eager grin, Dr. Polendina passed the case to Ilia. She returned the eager smile and gently took the case, setting it on a nearby table and unclipping the snaps to sneak a look at the gear within.

“Is there anywhere…” After a moment of looking at her new equipment within the container, Ilia closed it just as Weiss tried to sneak a glance over her shoulder. Furrowing her brow, Weiss couldn’t help but feel impatient as her curiosity threatened to overwhelm her. If the new attire was essentially the old attire, then why did Ilia need Pietro to help her with the design? Pursing her lips, she watched as Ilia glanced around the room with a nervous expression.

“Ah, eager to give it a try right away I see! Unfortunately there isn’t a changing room as this  _ is _ a development lab, but we do have a storage closet in the back. You needn’t worry about cameras either. Given how tight our security system is, if someone were to get this far without being seen I’d go so far as to applaud them for their efforts!” Letting out a light chuckle, Dr. Polendina gestured towards a door towards the back of the lab.

“Thank you sir!” Ilia’s eyes quickly flicked to the door Dr. Polendina had indicated and back to him as she picked up the case. Her eagerness couldn’t be any more obvious as she started to practically bounce in place, and with a quick smile and nod to Weiss, she began power walking across the lab. Weiss raised a brow and watched her go before turning to Dr. Polendina with a quizzical expression.

“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to let me in on the secret?” Tilting her head, Weiss placed a hand on her hip and let her eyes wander back to the door that had sealed shut as quickly as it had opened, Ilia now no longer visible to the pair.

“I could, but I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.” With a bit of a knowing grin, Dr. Polendina’s gaze followed after Weiss’s and the pair simply stood in silence and waited.

After the span of a few minutes, the door slid open, and Ilia stepped out wearing what looked to Weiss like her old combat attire. Skintight and with straps across her shoulders and upper torso, the black combat gear’s fabric didn’t make it past her shoulders or her thighs, instead clinging tight to her torso. Giddy as can be, Ilia quickly made her way back to the pair and set both the case and her old set of clothing on the table beside them.

“Well?” With an eager grin, Dr. Polendina leaned forward in his chair, his eyes scanning over the uniform before settling on Ilia’s still smiling face. The girl simply nodded, and he leaned back with a sigh of relief. 

“Well what?” Weiss at this point was more frustrated than anything else. Not being in on the secret was absolutely driving her mad, and both Pietro and Ilia looked at her, then one another, and chuckled.

“If you wouldn’t mind doing the honors, I would love to see the final product in person at least once before the two of you head off.” With a bow of his head and a sweep of his arm, Dr. Polendina’s chair took a few steps back from Ilia as she too stepped from the pair to allow them a better look at her. With a deep breath in, she let a slow breath out, and the coloration of her skin began to change. Starting at the tips of her fingers, a pale snowy white matching the uniform coloration of the lab began to crawl across her body, inching slowly along her hands to her wrist and gradually up her arm. It wasn’t anything new for Weiss at this point, the chameleon trait of her faunus companion was well known to her by now, but as the color changing pattern reached her shoulder Weiss’s eyes widened.

As the contrasting white met the black of the uniform, it too began to change in color. Pure white crawled across the previously black attire, and even the patterns of the material comprising the gear changed and gave way to a seamless smooth color. Across her neck and face, down her waist and legs, Ilia’s entire body and uniform turned to a color matching that of the lab around them. To Weiss’s surprise, even Ilia’s boots began to change, having not noticed the swap given how identical the new attire was to the old.

There was only the faintest hint of Ilia’s presence as her camouflage was complete, and with gentle steps as she moved around the room, Weiss had to squint in order to keep track of the other girl. Her eyes eventually started to water, strain caused from prolonged staring, as she feared that in the time it took to blink she might lose sight of the other girl. However, as concentrated as she was, this focus was broken as a loud clapping noise behind her caused her to turn in surprise.

“Excellent, just excellent!” Cheering from his chair, Dr. Polendina was clearly oblivious to Ilia’s current location as he too was squinting in an attempt to see Ilia through the spectacles sitting gently on the bridge of his nose. Weiss watched as he scanned the room before his eyes quickly flicked to the side, and she too turned to see Ilia’s camouflage fading away.

“Thank you, thank you.” With a bit of a dramatic bow, Ilia’s cheeks turned pink with blush, as did the darker spots across her body and a handful of locations across the once more black bodysuit.

“That’s amazing. How did you-” Weiss turned back to Dr. Polendina, still in a state of shock over what she’d just witnessed.

“Oh I have my ways. Though, I might’ve had to borrow a  _ tiny _ amount of hard-light dust to perfect the design.” Giving a wink to Weiss, who figured she might not comprehend an explanation even if it were provided, Dr. Polendina nodded to the case as his chair stepped towards the table. “Feel free to take the case with the old uniform as well. Believe an old man when he says he knows how important nostalgia can be.”

“Of course, and thank you again for all the hard work you put into this. You really didn’t-” Happily taking the case and slinging the clothes she’d been wearing over her shoulder, Ilia was cut off once more by a wave of Dr. Polendina’s hand.

“Don’t mention it. Like I said, it felt good to be back in the lab again.” Ilia hesitated for a moment, her mind simply filled with the desire to thank Dr. Polendina again and again for upgrading her equipment as he did, but with a nudge from Weiss she simply smiled and bowed.

“Thank you Pietro. You’re a great help as always.” With a polite curtsy to Pietro, who gave a nod in return, Weiss turned to Ilia and gave her a once over with a still impressed gaze.

“Of course. Now then, I’m sure you two ladies have better things to do than sit and chat with an old man like myself. Go ahead and get on out of here, and make sure to put that new suit to good use. I’d love to hear about how it performs in the field.” Weiss and Ilia smiled softly to one another, thanking Pietro once more for all the work he’d done for them since their arrival in Atlas, before exiting the room and spending a brief moment together outside in the hallway.

“This is more amazing than I could’ve ever imagined.” Ilia was staring down at the suit, twisting and turning to try and see as much of it as she could, various colorations shimmering across the surface as she tested the limits of the design.

“It is quite the upgrade, and a perfectly timed one at that given our current mission.” Weiss spoke slow, her eyes mesmerized by the transforming patterns across Ilia’s body, before her expression fell slightly. “Are you ready to go?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. I should probably drop off my clothes and old gear before we leave but- Wow, it even changes to the regular black when my skin tone turns back to normal. He thought of  _ everything _ .” Still spinning, hardly paying Weiss any attention, Ilia was absolutely elated with the design of her new equipment.

“No I mean, are you  _ ready _ ?” Weiss took a step forward, placing a hand on Ilia’s shoulder to halt the girl’s spinning, and Ilia looked up to meet surprisingly serious and almost sad pale eyes staring at her. It took her a moment, the bubbly feelings still washing over her slowing her train of thought, but her eyes went wide and then soft as she gathered Weiss’s meaning.

“Oh.” Pausing for a second, the high she’d been on crashing rather suddenly, Ilia rubbed the crook of her neck awkwardly and looked from Weiss towards the wall. “I mean, I think I am. Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel at the moment, only that I want to go. I  _ need _ to go…”

“Right. Well, no time like the present I suppose.” Offering a sympathetic grin, Weiss nodded slowly as Ilia met her eyes once more. “I’ll be with you the entire time, I promise. Anything I can do to help you through this, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Thanks…” Ilia lifted her head slowly, taking a breath to recompose herself. “I know you will.”

Managing a smile, Ilia embraced Weiss in a brief hug, before the pair each felt their scrolls vibrate. Weiss dug the device from a pocket in her dress, Ilia grabbing hers from the pants still slung over her shoulder, the pair were alerted to the arrival of the airship that would take them down to the transport truck that would deliver them to the Amity Colosseum

“No time like the present…”

\---

There was a constant and audible crunching sound as the tires of the transport truck drove effortlessly along the barely visible snow covered road. There was a gentle breeze and only the smallest semblance of snow drifting down from above, but it was clear there had been a great deal more snow not long ago. As the engine hummed, the inside of the vehicle was filled with a heavy silence, the individuals sitting within keeping mostly to themselves.

Weiss Schnee and Ilia Amitola sat hand in hand as the vehicle drove down the path towards the Amity Colosseum. While Weiss gave the occasional worried stare towards her girlfriend, the other girl simply stared straight out the window of the seemingly endless path, waiting for their destination to come into view. Despite her confidence in volunteering for this particular mission, the closer she came to facing her past the more anxious she began to feel. Constantly fidgeting in her seat, she bit down hard on her lip as her eyes glossed over and she became lost in a memory.

This wouldn’t be her first time visiting the mines where her parents had passed, but it would be the first since the incident occured. When she was a girl she had always been curious about what sorts of jobs her parents carried out. Cargo trucks similar to the one they were in would arrive just on the edge of Mantle daily and the faunus workers would file in one by one. There was the occasional human amongst their ranks, but this was one of the few jobs a faunus could actually secure within the Kingdom of Atlas. Faunus such as her parents.

She was always told by her parents that they enjoyed their work, that the days spent toiling in the mines to bring home barely enough lien for the three of them to eat wasn’t as bad as it seemed, but something in their smiles as they spoke to her betrayed the words they were speaking. As young as she was she was good at reading people, and watching the other workers stepped off the back of the trucks upon arriving back at Mantle she could tell by their actions that the days were not pleasant. It filled her with a mixture of worry and curiosity, and using her camouflage she decided to sneak out one day and board the same trucks as the other workers to see just what kinds of work her family took part in.

Her mind couldn’t have prepared herself for the terrible conditions of the mines, nor for the level of security surrounding the labor force. She’d never seen so many humans in one place before, nor had she seen so many guns. Amidst the ghettos on the outskirts of the Mantle Wall it was impossible to find any weapons that were even remotely affordable. Those that did have weapons tended to be in leadership positions within the faunus communities and used them to keep the peace or to fend off Grimm when Huntsman or soldiers weren’t available. To suddenly see so many soldiers protecting this area, it clearly must’ve been of some importance.

“BLOCKADE DETECTED.” A robotic voice snapped her from her memories as the vehicle came to a slow stop. Turning her head she watched as the AK-200 driving the vehicle stopped the vehicle with a red flashing message blinking along its faceplate, and she stared out the windshield to see a rather thrown together metallic wall impeding their progress. With a raised brow she tilted her head as two women stepped out from the cover of the makeshift barrier with weapons drawn.

“Alright, let’s take this nice and easy.” Her voice was raised so they could hear her properly, and Ilia felt in the back of her mind that she recognized this woman from somewhere.

“Robyn?” Frowning, Weiss squeezed Ilia’s hand briefly before opening the door to the vehicle and stepping out. “Stay here…”

With an audible sigh, Weiss shut the door behind her and left Ilia alone inside. Ilia recognized the name Robyn and in that moment realized where she’d seen this woman before. She was a new big contender for a seat on the Atlas Council, her primary competition being Jacques Schnee. That alone gave her points with Ilia, but even with that in mind, she wondered why she’d be holding up a cargo truck in the middle of nowhere.

“Well this is certainly a surprise. Run out of press conferences to attend with your ‘girlfriend’?” With a hand on her hip, the woman standing before Weiss smirked towards her as she stepped to the front of the vehicle, violet eyes looking rather amused from beneath tied back blonde hair. “I’d normally congratulate you for all you’ve done for the people of Mantle, that is, if I didn’t suspect it was all a ruse to make Jacques Schnee look good right before the election. Do tell me, how  _ are _ those negotiations going?”

“Last I heard rather well thank you, but believe it or not I never had any intentions of boosting my father’s position in the polls. Despite what you might think, I assure you that I’m on your side in all of this.” Frowning slightly, Weiss furrowed her brow in memory of another incident similar to this that had happened to Ruby during her trip to the mines. It was a difficult position to be in, but she knew she’d have to watch her tongue. Remembering how things had gone for Ruby, Weiss let her eyes drift to the shorter sheep faunus, Fiona, who had taken a position with Robyn by the barricade in front of her, before gesturing back over her shoulder. “Now, is it safe to assume that it’s just the two of you, or are the rest of your ‘Happy Huntresses’ somewhere behind us preparing an ambush?”

The confident smirk Robyn was wearing faded slightly before she let out a chuckle. With a snap of her fingers, Weiss glanced over her shoulder to see two more individuals step from the snow. A pair of women seemed to materialize behind the truck, each holding an identical weapon that appeared to be two bladed crossbows connected via a pole creating a polearm of sorts. Each looked rather aggressive, the first being a woman with blue hair and pale skin glaring at Weiss with amber eyes. The second, far taller than the first, had green hair and shared a similar look with dark skin and beige eyes. While they hadn’t quite taken combat stances, Weiss couldn’t help but keep them in her thoughts as she turned back to Robyn.

“Well then, I’m sure if you know this much then you also know what happens next.” Confidence returning, Robyn nodded her head towards the truck as her eyes narrowed. “Now tell me, what’re all these resources going to Amity for?”

“This song and dance?” Rolling her eyes Weiss chuckled slightly. “I’m afraid I don’t know what supplies you’re talking about. We’re merely on our way to clear out some Grimm in the tundra. Other than myself, another passenger, and our driver, the truck is empty.”

Raising a brow, Robyn shook her head and gave a heavy sigh.

“Well then, you won’t mind if we take a look now will you?” Robyn glanced past Weiss to the pair of Happy Huntresses standing behind the truck. If she recalled correctly, their names were May Marigold and Joanna Greenleaf, and she merely shrugged as the pair took a hesitant step towards the truck. Still glancing at Weiss, who hadn’t made any moves to suggest she planned to stop them, the pair then nodded to one another and quickly closed the gap between themselves and the transport vehicle. Without any further delay, everyone seemed to hold their breath as the back of the truck creaked and opened outwards.

“She’s telling the truth. It’s empty.” May stepped to the side, visibly disappointed by the lack of supplies in the truck, though the vehicle did creak further as Joanna hopped inside. A few moments later, the taller woman stepped out as well and swung the doors shut. With a nod, she confirmed May’s observation.

“Like I said. Myself and another passenger are being transported to combat some Grimm in the tundra. Now then, if you’d be so kind as to move your little wall there…” Weiss felt hopeful that the lack of supplies in the truck would be enough to let them pass, but given they were still surrounded she could sense that this wasn’t the case.

“Whose the other passenger?” Robyn narrowed her eyes and stared at the truck. There was a look in her eyes that caused Weiss some concern. As if sensing her thoughts, the other three Happy Huntresses lifted their weapons in anticipation, and Weiss gave a nervous glance towards the door of the vehicle.

“Its-”

“It’s me.” Before she could think of a response, the door once again swung open, and Ilia hopped down into the snow, taking several steps to place herself beside Weiss in front of the vehicle. Her presence seemed to catch the Huntresses off guard, an expression of surprise replacing the intense stare Fiona and Robyn had been wearing. Fiona stepped towards Robyn, whispering something up towards her with her eyes on Ilia. "Ilia Amitola. Pleased to meet you."

“Now this truly  _ is _ a surprise. Are you involved with this little con the military has thrown together too Miss Amitola? I’d have expected more from you given the circumstances, but I guess everyone has a price.” Robyn’s lips curled slightly as she stared down Ilia.

“Trust me when I say that I of all people wouldn’t dream of participating in General Ironwood’s plans if it was all some sort of con. What’s happening really is what’s best for the people of Mantle  _ and _ for the faunus.” Ilia’s eyes drifted from Robyn to Fiona, who seemed to give a nervous look up towards Robyn.

“Robyn, I think-” A hand shot out to silence the smaller faunus.

“You may have won plenty of points with the people from the little stunt you pulled at the mines, and honestly, regardless of any ulterior motives, I still find myself grateful for everything the two of you have done. Defending the people from Grimm is one thing, but defending it against itself, well…” Robyn let the thought trail off before shaking her head. “Despite all of that, all of the progress you’ve made, you’re letting Ironwood undo all of it for whatever this little pet project of his is. All I _hear_ is line after line about trust and faith, but every day I _see_ more and more lives being lost because we can’t get the resources we need. So, given this opportunity, this seems as good a chance as any to try and get the answers I need in order to protect my people.”

Just behind the pair Weiss could hear a crunch in the snow as May and Joanna raised their weapons, taking a step towards the two of them with cold stares. Weiss slowly began to lift her hand towards Myrtenaster, but Ilia reached out to take hold of her other hand and gave it a confident squeeze. Weiss turned towards the girl who shook her head slowly before lifting up both hands and taking a step towards Robyn.

“I know how you feel Robyn. Having been born in Mantle, I know just how much suffering there is in the city, especially for the faunus. There is no price in the world that would ever make me turn on my people, and honestly, I’m here  _ because _ of my people. I  _ need _ to get to those mines Robyn.” Ilia stopped short a few feet from Robyn, her hands still raised as she waited for a response. Behind her, Weiss had managed to remain calm, though her eyes were fixed firmly on the two with weapons still trained on her.

“Really?” Raising a hand of her own, Robyn signaled for May and Joanna to stand down, before extending that same hand outwards towards Ilia. “Take my hand.”

Caught off guard by the response, Ilia glanced back to Weiss, who gave an unsure nod before turning back to keep an eye on May and Joanna. Inching forward, Ilia’s eyes shifted rapidly between Fiona and Robyn for any signs they might suddenly attack her, but as she reached out to take Robyn’s hand she was further surprised as their hands suddenly began to glow. A lilac aura began to crawl slowly up each of their arms, and Robyn looked Ilia firmly in the eyes.

“Why is it so important that you get to the mines.” Despite the imminent danger, Weiss once more took her eyes off the two behind her to witness the strange phenomenon. Ilia hadn’t reacted in any way that would suggest that she was in pain, so at the very least whatever technique Robyn was using didn’t appear to be dangerous.

“It’s…” Ilia blinked a few times, a sudden surge of emotion choking her slightly as she tried to get the words out. “It’s where my parents died.”

There was a moment of silence, before the faint aura connecting the pair changed to a vibrant green. Robyn’s eyes went wide and Fiona’s faunus ears seemed to droop as the pair maintained their connection. Despite her outward emotions, Ilia managed to remain in enough control that her own body didn’t begin to change colors as well.

“I was still a girl at the time, but the accident that closed the mines, it took the lives of my parents and dozens of faunus I grew up with. People I called family died in those mines and until now I never had the chance to say goodbye…” Her voice had started to shake, a hint of blue creeping across patches of her skin, and Robyn seemed to freeze. Fiona took a step forward, tugging at the woman’s sleeve, and she seemed to snap to and immediately withdraw her arm.

“I- I had no idea.” Blinking a few times as she did her best to process this sudden rush of information and emotion, Robyn’s face took a look of confusion as she glanced past Ilia towards Weiss. “Losing your parents to an accident in Schnee mines, knowing the conditions that man has kept the faunus in, and still you…”

“Jacques Schnee is a monster.” Weiss had taken a few steps forward, approaching Robyn to stand by Ilia. “We never lied to anybody about our relationship Robyn. Believe it or not, distaste towards my father and everything he’s done was actually quite the bonding experience for the two of us. We’ve never had anything but the interests and safety of the people at heart.” 

“Robyn…” With her weapon lowered down by her side, Fiona gave a teary look to her leader, nodding her head back towards the blockade standing between the truck and the mines. Even May and Joanna had lowered their weapons and simply looked to Robyn for any signs of what to do next.

“Fine.” Closing her eyes and clenching her fists, Robyn turned from Ilia and let out a sigh. “Consider this a thank you for everything you’ve done for Mantle up until now. And… I’m sorry for your loss. I- I hope that at the very least you can find some closure.” Nodding her head towards Fiona, who was suddenly wearing a bright smile, the pair moved towards the makeshift barricade and slid the center section from the path of the truck.

“Thank you Robyn, you have no idea how much this means to me.” Ilia had managed to fight back tears, but her expression still carried a hint of sadness as Robyn turned back to watch the girls return to their vehicle.

“Don’t thank me yet. I still have a lot of questions I want to ask, and the next truck that comes through here might not be as lucky as yours.” Shaking her head slowly, Robyn stepped aside and gestured for May and Joanna to join her. To her surprise however, Fiona seemed to suddenly rush towards the vehicle just as Ilia was about to climb inside.

“W-wait!” Her voice was soft, the sheep faunus catching Ilia’s attention before she had time to step up inside the vehicle.

“Wha-” Ilia took her hand from the door and faced the girl suddenly inches from her. Her eyes were wide with shock and for a brief instant she wondered if they’d suddenly been betrayed, but as the faunus seemed to shuffle awkwardly in place she didn’t think that was the case.

“I just…” Frantically searching for the right words, Fiona seemed at a loss, before she extended both arms and wrapped Ilia in a hug. “I just wanted to thank you. Part of me has been hoping to meet you since the rebellion ended, to let you know that I think what you did was amazing. Both of you.”

Fiona’s eyes moved inwards towards the truck where a somewhat stunned Weiss was watching the encounter unfold. Ilia too briefly looked towards the girl sitting inside the vehicle before gently returning the hug with a soft smile.

“Of course. I’m glad I could help.” Ilia released Fiona as the girl took a few steps back, cheeks flushed as she quickly turned to resume her position beside Robyn. Ilia’s body flared pink as she looked towards the Happy Huntresses before crawling up into the vehicle beside Weiss. Closing the door behind her, she could see Fiona giving a tiny wave farewell, to which Ilia returned the gesture.

“OBSTRUCTION REMOVED. RESUMING ROUTE.” As the AK-200 shifted the truck back into gear and the vehicle moved quietly past the blockade, Weiss was thankful that the situation hadn’t ended in violence. She was somewhat surprised that the robotic driver hadn’t exited the vehicle and attempted to arrest the Huntresses, but she wasn’t going to complain.

“Well that was certainly interesting.” Weiss chuckled a bit as the pair decompressed after the tense encounter.

“Yeah that’s one way to put it. So that’s Robyn…” Ilia seemed to ponder her impression of the woman face to face. She certainly carried a certain confidence with her, though it was difficult to imagine having been held up by a woman vying for a seat on the council. Then again, it wasn’t as if her opponent was exactly on the legal up and up either.

The two discussed the encounter for the remainder of the drive, each thankful that things hadn’t ended in violence, until the truck pulled up to their destination.

Several large structures made of metal and brick littered the area immediately outside the mouth of the cave. Unlike the cave systems of the mine they’d previously spent a great deal of time inside, this system was primarily composed of ice rather than stone. Snow covered abandoned equipment that had yet to be removed from the site, and several soldiers patrolled the perimeter as individuals in lab coats could be seen working on various devices across the grounds. A single shuttle, designed to transport these same scientists to and from the colosseum, sat idly nearby with the pilot leaning against the hull as he scanned through his scroll.

“DESTINATION REACHED.” The AK-200 that had driven them this far announced their arrival and seemed to power down. Weiss then turned to Ilia who had her eyes locked on the entrance to the mine and seemed stiff as a board.

“Ilia?” Placing a gentle hand once more on her companion, Weiss watched as Ilia took a slow breath and popped open the door. Scooting after her, the pair slid down from the transport and simply stood in the icy winds.

“It’s strange.” Ilia chuckled softly, a response Weiss wasn’t prepared for, and she slowly led Weiss towards the entrance to the caves. “I’ve imagined this moment for so long but now that I’m here I don’t even know how I’m supposed to feel.”

As the pair stepped past the threshold of the mine, the metallic support structure around the entrance casting a shadow across them, Ilia crouched and placed a hand gently on the icy floor.

“I never made it past this point before. The last time I was here I was so excited to see my parent’s working that I slipped on a patch of ice and bruised my elbow.” Chuckling to herself Ilia stood once more, rubbing her hand gently over the memory of an injury from long ago. “I must’ve hit my head too because the next thing I remember is laying next to a small fire with ice on my arm and my parents looking disappointed.”

“I suppose there’s no shortage of ice to use.” Gesturing to their surroundings, Weiss couldn’t help but try and lighten the mood. Ilia seemed to chuckle as well, and with a few steps forward, Weiss wrapped her arms around the girl’s waist.

“Yeah, no doubt about that.” Ilia closed her eyes, her mind focusing on the feeling of Weiss’s embrace, before she turned within the girl’s arms to face her. “Do you think my parents would be disappointed in me? For the life I lived after they died, after I threw away the life they’d worked so hard to make for me?”

Weiss stared as Ilia’s body, as well as the suit clinging to her, began to turn blue as worry and insecurities flooded her thoughts. Small flecks of skin turned green, her hair deepening to the state it had been back in the training hall, and for a moment Weiss wasn’t sure how to respond.

“I think they’d be proud.” With a soft and sympathetic look, Weiss finally managed to smile towards the faunus wrapped tightly in her arms. “Even if it feels like you lost your way, the most important thing is you found it again. Think of all the good you’ve done, for the faunus of Menagerie, of Haven, and just recently for all the faunus still in Atlas and Mantle. Not only did you help reform the entirety of the White Fang, but you faced down Jacques Schnee and made him buckle without even needing to raise a weapon!”

“Well I did threaten his life just a little…” Managing a small huff, the edges of her lips cracking into the tiniest of smiles, Ilia’s skin steadily resumed its normal coloration, the stealth suit resuming the default black tones of the material, before letting out a small laugh as she recalled the expression Jacques had made after her warning about betraying them during the speech.

“Well I hardly think they can blame you for that. If anything, we’ll consider it a compromise between either extreme.” Smiling brighter, seeing the joy returning to Ilia, Weiss pulled her in for a tight hug. “I really wish I could’ve met them. I bet your family was leagues better than mine.”

“Now to be fair, that bar is pretty low.” Ilia shot a sarcastic smirk at Weiss as the pair pulled apart, and Weiss raised an unamused brow. “Kidding. I’m kidding.”

“The sad part is that you’re not entirely wrong.” Shrugging her shoulders, seeing the relief in Ilia’s eyes as she realized she wasn’t in any immediate trouble, the pair simply stood in silence, turning to gaze at the sparkling crystal walls of their icy surroundings. “So…”

“Hmm?” Still taking the occasional deep breath as tiny forgotten fragments of memory flashed through her mind, Ilia glanced to the nervously frowning Weiss.

“Should we, you know, go on patrol now?” Weiss gestured her head awkwardly back outside, towards the patrolling soldiers moving through the snow banks in the distance, and fidgeted slightly. “I mean, are you okay now, or should we stay here? Take as long as you need of course, I’m just not sure-”

“Weiss, I’m okay.” Ilia could see Weiss begin to meltdown, unsure of how to proceed in the moment and frantically trying to make sure Ilia got everything out of the trip that she wanted to without entirely abandoning their mission. It was sweet in a way, to see Weiss so worked up over her feelings, and Ilia gave a reassuring smile to her partner. “Actually, I think seeing that faunus girl earlier really helped show me that I’m on the right path. That the journey I’m taking with you and your team is one my parents would’ve been proud of, just like you said.”

“We’ll have to thank her the next time we see them, hopefully under better conditions.” Weiss felt relieved that she hadn’t hurt Ilia’s feelings by suggesting that they head out to their mission and began to move towards the exit. “Shall we?”

“Before we go, I do have one last thing I need to take care of…”

Stepping from Weiss, the other girly merely observing with a mix of concern and curiosity, Ilia took a deep breath and placed a hand on the wall with a teary smile.

“Goodbye...”

As if on cue, a siren began to blare in the distance, a shrill sound echoing past them and deep into the cave. Ilia turned quickly, her arm swiftly wiping away a few stray tears that had trickled across her cheeks, and ran with Weiss to the edge of the mines. In the distance, sounds of gunfire and shouting told them that Grimm had arrived on scene.

“Not my fault.” Ilia could sense Weiss was giving her a sideways glance that she refused to meet, and instead drew her weapon, whipping the condensed form outwards so the entirety of the specially designed whip came to a point as if it were a rapier. 

“I didn’t say it was.” With a light laugh, Weiss drew Myrtenaster and spun the cartridge, briefly glancing down to ensure that each dust cartridge was filled. “Ready to test out that new suit?”

“Way ahead of you.” Looking up from her weapon, Weiss could only see the briefest of glimpses of Lightning Lash as it broke Ilia’s near invisible snowy silhouette. Using the tracks left behind in the snow, Weiss huffed and rushed after Ilia.

“It’s not a race you know!” As Weiss reached the top of a hill a short distance from the mine, she could see several Centinels bursting from the snowy earth and assaulting the defensive team stationed to guard the mines and the Amity Tower. 

“I didn’t say it was, but that doesn’t mean I’m not winning!”

Somewhere a few yards in front of her, Weiss could hear Ilia chuckling as she ran eagerly into the fight, and without hesitation she rushed in to join her.


	7. Grimm Slayerz

“Taken. Taken. Reserved. Completed. Completed. Boring…” The glowing device showed line after line of text regarding the current missions being hosted by Atlas Academy. As the mechanical finger dragged across the screen to view more and more options, the blonde holding the device eventually let out a defeated sigh and rolled onto her side. Staring into the empty dorm room, she grumbled to herself and tossed the device to the opposite side of her bed. “I’m so  _ bored _ . You’d think with all the festivities there wouldn’t be so many people taking on missions. I want to punch things!”

Sitting up in frustration, Yang repositioned herself to lean over the edge of the bed, her blonde locks flowing down past her head like curtains over the bunk beneath her. Eyes wide and with an eager smile, she set her sights on the faunus girl taking residence in the lower bed, who wore a small smile as her eyes skimmed side to side across the text sitting in her lap.

“Well if you’d taken Jaune up on the offer to go with Team JNR to oversee patrols down in Mantle…” Finishing the last paragraph on the page she was on, Blake’s eyes flicked briefly to the page number before closing the book and setting it to the side. Looking up with an amused expression towards the dangling Yang, she could see the girl’s eagerness replaced with a frown.

“You know, they call it a patrol, but I don’t think escorting children across the street is what I signed up for when I first enrolled to be a Huntress at Beacon.” As Yang let out another sigh her head vanished from sight and Blake tilted her own head slightly, leaning forward to try and see where her companion had gone, when a blur of a woman dropped down from the upper bunk with a thud. Despite having spent most of the day lounging in their beds, each of the girls was already dressed in their usual combat apparel, a habit from months of traveling in hostile territory.

“You could’ve always asked Weiss to tag along to Amity, I’m sure there’s  _ plenty _ of things to punch there.” Smiling softly, Blake scooted to the edge of the bed, letting her legs dangle over the edge and resting her feet gently on the marbled floors as she watched her partner - both in combat and in romance - take up a fighting stance and begin jabbing her fists at the air. Chuckling to herself at the enthusiasm, Blake pursed her lips as she spent a moment silently cherishing the relationship she had with the girl before her.

“I sorta get the sense that Weiss and Ilia wanted some alone time with that  _ particular _ mission. You saw how Ilia reacted when Clover offered up the mission. What was up with that anyways?” Pausing for a moment, Yang made a face of concentration as she remembered being ushered from the hall by Blake. Turning towards the faunus, her eyes squinted in as Blake quickly avoided eye contact. “Blake?”

“Hmm?” Feigning ignorance, Blake reached reflexively to twirl her hair between her fingers, though she paused briefly as she felt nothing but air. The shorter cut was still an adjustment, and she instead began to twirl her fingers in her lap.

“Blaaaake?” Moving in towards Blake, Yang leaned against the wall at the center of the bunks, doing her best to meet the other girl’s eyes. Blake fidgeted slightly before letting her head droop slightly.

“It’s...where her parents died.” Letting out a long sigh, Blake gave a nervous look up to Yang, whose eyes went wide in surprise. “She mentioned it briefly in her speech to the rebels, but the mining incident that took the lives of her parents was at the mines where Amity is currently stationed.”

“Ah, right.  _ Definitely _ don’t want to interfere with that one then.” Feeling guilty about pressing Blake for that tidbit of information, Yang slumped down onto the bed beside the faunus and sprawled herself out in a huff. “Alright well, what about Ruby and Penny? What are they up to?”

“I think Ruby said something about Weiss ordering her extra dance lessons before Penny came and abducted her. At this rate I wonder if she’ll be ready by the time the dance rolls around.” Snickering slightly, Blake fell back into the bed to pull herself close to Yang. She crawled up beside her, resting her head gently against the other’s chest, and smiled softly to herself. “Do you remember the dance at Beacon? The music, the lights-”

“Jaune in a dress?” Yang wrapped an arm around Blake, gently brushing through her raven locks as the pair found themselves lost in nostalgia. “Everyone was dressed their best, especially you.”

Placing a gentle kiss on the top of Blake’s head, Yang stared up at the smooth surface above them, picturing every detail of the night with a great deal of clarity. It felt like one of the last calm moments in their lives, when everyone was still together and smiling.

“Better times, that’s for sure. Could you imagine if Jaune showed up like that again?” Blake looked up to Yang who could only burst out laughing.

“Man, do you think we could convince him? I’d kill to see how Ironwood would react, but I don’t think we should do that to poor Ciel. She sounds sweet, so maybe we leave him be for now.” Chuckling to herself, Yang paused for a moment. “Now that I think about it, we still need to go dress shopping don’t we?”

“Part of me assumed Weiss would have it magically taken care of. We should probably ask about that when she gets back given how much she likes to have things all planned out.” Blake frowned to herself as she imagined Weiss giving everyone identical dresses and suits in order to fall more in line with Atlas colors. “Though we should probably look around for some alternative options just to be on the safe side; white isn’t exactly my look after all.”

“Well, it’s not as if we’re doing anything else at the moment!” Sitting up, Yang scooted off the bed and stretched herself out, letting out a satisfied sigh as she extended a hand out to Blake. “First things first though, we have to figure out where the dress shops even are.”

“That’s true, we haven’t exactly had much time off to go shopping since we got to Atlas. The real question is if we’ll be able to afford anything we  _ do _ find.” The pair chuckled as they exited the dorm, locking the door behind them and frowning as they looked to either side of the hall. “Should we find someone to ask?”

“Probably. I bet there’s dozens of last minute shoppers out and about, so we’ll just find some and tag along with them!” Grinning eagerly, Yang and Blake made their way through the school towards the front of the building in hopes to bump into anyone at all that could lead them to a dress shop. However, as the pair walked through the eerily silent dorms, they began to wonder where everyone was.

“Are we the only two in the whole school  _ not _ doing something right now?” Yang grumbled slightly as they walked through yet another empty hallway, not a single sign of another student to be found.

“It  _ is _ Atlas. With all the schedules maybe we just picked a time when everyone is in class or on a miss-” Blake paused as her ear twitched slightly. They’d just exited the dorms and were roaming through one of the more open areas of the Academy when Blake quickly began to look around with an expression of concentration.

“Blake?” Tilting her head, Yang placed a hand on her hip and raised a brow at the sudden strange behavior being exhibited by her partner.

“Shh, I hear something. I think it’s…music?” As she turned and twisted her head, her ears twitching and changing positions as she did her best to pinpoint the source of the noise with her faunus hearing, Blake eventually settled on the hall closest to them. “I think it’s coming from this way.”

“Well, if there’s music there’s bound to be people. Let’s check it out!” Blake nodded at the suggestion and quickly began to lead the way up a set of stairs and through a portion of the school they’d never been to before. Very quickly their surroundings began to change; decorations were hung in Atlas colors and everything about their surroundings felt spirited and patriotic. Blake would pause at every intersection of the halls to lead them closer to the source, and after minutes of searching Yang could hear it as well.

“I think we’re here.” The pair paused outside of a rather ornate set of doors, and looking to one another with a shrug, they pushed the enormous doors inwards to reveal a massive ballroom. Their eyes went wide at the sheer size of the room that looked as if it could fit the entire student body and still have room to spare, and that included the numerous tables and decorations hanging from the ceiling. Their jaws dropped at the same time a guitar riff came to an end, and their eyes gradually moved towards an impressive stage where all four members of Team FNKI stood behind their individual instruments.

“Thank you, thank yo-” Grinning eagerly to herself, Neon Katt winked into the empty surroundings from her position on stage, swinging the microphone in her hand around in dramatic fashion before she noticed Blake and Yang standing awkwardly in the entryway. Her voice could easily be heard through speakers setup around the room, and she eagerly waved them over. “Oh hey! Can you guys hear me alright? We’re testing out the speakers!”

With a nod and a thumbs up, the pair glanced up to a pair of speakers placed in the corner closest to them. Neon then did a fist pump before telling her team to take a break and skated to the edge of the stage, hopping down with ease and skating in between matching white tables and chairs already adorned in white doilies with a rhythmic sway. She slowed gradually as Yang and Blake met her at the halfway point of the hall before she looked between them with a wide smile.

“What’s up you guys!” With a cropped jacket over a light blue crop-top over yet another darker crop top buckled to her waist, Neon had her signature hair buns bouncing as she skidded to a halt. Smiling ear to ear, a twinkle in her eyes and a star on her cheek, Neon gave the pair a once over.

“Uhh nothing really, we were trying to see if we could find someone to go dress shopping with last minute when Blake heard you guys playing so we came to check it out. From what I heard you guys sound awesome!” Yang glanced past Neon towards the stage where the other three members of Team FNKI stood.

Flynt Coal, the member Yang was most familiar with aside from Neon due to their fight back in the Vytal Festival, could be seen holding his signature trumpet. Wearing a white trimmed black jacket over a white dress shirt and dress pants, Flynt tipped his blue trimmed dark fedora in her direction with a smirk. Nodding back at him, remembering the intensity of their fight with a smug grin, Yang’s eyes moved between Kobalt and Ivori, each wearing the colors of their names and spending more time focusing on their instruments. She’d met them a few brief times prior for training and didn’t know much about them personally, but the two seemed to stick mostly to themselves, and she turned her attention back to Neon.

“Oof, you two haven’t gotten your dresses yet? Good luck finding anyone to go with you, pretty much everyone in Atlas always has dress clothes on hand for any and every occasion.” Snickering slightly, Neon watched as Blake and Yang gave one another a nervous frown. “You could always ask your friend Weiss, I bet she has  _ loads _ of clothes to pick from! Then again, I can’t exactly see either of you in Atlas colors.”

“Yeah, that’s what we were afraid of.” Glancing around at the white, gray, and blue colors lining the hall, Yang and Blake let out small sighs.

“Normally I’d  _ totally _ be willing to go with you guys to pick stuff out, but we’re a little busy right now. Gotta get ready for the big day and all!” Neon glanced back towards the stage where the other three members of her team sat patiently.

“Wait, you guys aren’t  _ Grimm Slayerz _ are you!?” Yang’s mind put the pieces together as she remembered the drastic change in music selection the memo had provided them.

“Yup! We’re definitely gonna kick the dance up a notch or three once we finally take the stage! That classical stuff is cool and all I guess, but once we get up there we’re cranking it all the way up to eleven!” Neon punched her first into the air in excitement before her eyes narrowed slightly. Glancing between the pair, her lips curled into a smile that reminded the pair of a cat, and she waggled her eyebrows at the two. “Oooh don’t tell me, are the two of you going together?”

“Ah, yeah.” Rubbing the back of her head with blushed cheeks, Yang took a step towards Blake and intertwined their fingers.

“I knew it! I totally thought the two of you looked so cute together when we went dancing!” Neon chuckled slightly as Blake and Yang couldn’t help but laugh along.

“Were we that obvious?” Blake looked to Yang who matched her loving gaze.

“A little bit, but there’s nothing wrong with that.” Snickering a little more as she watched the two stare at one another, Neon coughed the pair from their moment. “How about the rest of your group. There’s  _ so _ many of you guys, did everyone find a date or is there going to be some last minute panic like there is for dress shopping?”

“Luckily we figured all  _ that _ out pretty quick, with the exception of Jaune, but with a little bit of help he snagged a date as well. Let’s see… we’ve got Ruby going with Penny, Weiss is going with Ilia, naturally, Ren and Nora, and then Jaune is actually going with this girl Ciel S… So…?” Yang blinked as she realized she’d forgotten the girl’s last name, and could only repeat the syllable over and over in hopes it would come to her.

“Ciel Soleil.” Blake rescued her lost thought with a soft grin as Yang’s eyes lit up in recognition.

“Ciel Soleil! Yeah that was it! We haven’t met her yet but Penny introduced the two and I guess they hit it off.” Yang wondered what the girl would be like in person. From what Jaune had described she'd gotten some nostalgia to how Weiss had behaved their first semester at Beacon.

“Oooh, I remember her! She was on Penny’s team at the Vytal Festival. We traveled together but I didn’t really talk with her much. Speaking of Penny, how crazy was it finding out she was a robot! I mean it was tragic and all in the moment, but thinking back…” Neon put her hands next to her head and closed her eyes before making dramatic explosion noises and gesturing outwards with open palms. “Mind. Blown.”

“I guess it was pretty crazy if I think about it. There was just so much that happened after the fact that we didn’t really have time to process it.” The pair shared a solemn look as Yang flexed her robotic hand a few times.

“Ahem.” From the stage, the trio turned to see Ivori had moved towards the mic stand in front, and tapping at his scroll his eyes fixated on Neon.

“Oh, right!” Turning back to the two of them, Neon bowed her head slightly and began to drift backwards on her skates. “Guess it’s time to get back to it! I hope you guys manage to get your dresses on time, I bet you both look really pretty all dressed up! Not that you’re not pretty now, but you get it!”

Quickly spinning as she went, Neon began a blur of color as a rainbow streaked behind her, weaving between the tables she jumped up and spiraled in place on stage before grabbing the mic with her tail flicking side to side.

“ _ WE ARE GRIMM SLAYERZ! _ ” In no time at all music blared through the hall as Team FNKI resumed practicing for the ball.

“SHALL WE?” Practically shouting over the music, Blake and Yang winced slightly at the volume now that they were in the immediate presence of the band. Internally they hoped that, as much as Team FNKI would crank the dance up to 11, that at the very least they could crank the volume  _ down _ . Still hand in hand, the two quickly hurried themselves from the hall and sealed the enormous ornate doors they’d entered from behind them. Immediately their hearing returned as the music became muffled behind them, and they let out sighs of relief.

“From here they sound pretty good at least.” Chuckling softly as they listened in for a few moments, the pair pushed off the doors and glanced back down the empty halls. “Welp, back to square one I suppose.”

“Should we head to the entrance like we originally planned?” Trying to orient herself, Blake looked down the practically identical hallways before them and did her best to remember the route they’d taken to get to the ballroom. She’d been so focused on hearing her way here that visually the maze of Atlas Academy was impossible to navigate.

“If we can find it.” Chuckling as she too tried to figure out where exactly they were, Yang shrugged and arbitrarily picked a path. Deciding that she didn’t have any better ideas, Blake followed without question, and the two began their journey to find the entrance of the academy.

Fortunately, despite their initial worries about being lost in the endless number of seamlessly connected identical halls, Blake was able to use the music to guide them in a reverse fashion. The quieter the music, the further she knew the ballroom became, and in no time at all the pair found themselves in the wide room they’d first heard the music.

“Do I ever tell you how much I adore those ears of yours?” Smiling softly at Blake’s cat ears, the other girl blushed and tucked her hair behind her human ears.

“I wouldn’t mind hearing it more.” Chuckling to herself, Blake flashed a soft smile back to Yang as the two once more began making their way to the exit.

As the two braced themselves for the sudden rush of cool air, they glanced down the steps towards the school’s docks. Empty as ever, they took a few slow steps down towards an area that was normally swarming with students and simply glanced around in confusion.

“I guess everyone really  _ is _ busy with other things. It’s weird to not see  _ anybody _ .” Frowning as her eyes scanned the right half of the docks, with Blake scanning the left, Yang’s mood perked slightly as she saw a young woman with a light blue beret staring at a watch on her wrist. “Oh wait, there’s someone!”

Almost as soon as her eyes had locked onto the girl, blue eyes beneath navy hair had locked onto her as well.

“Excuse me! Could you-” As Yang jogged over towards the girl, who to her surprise had already begun walking towards the two of them, she was instantly cut off as soon as they were within a few feet of one another.

“Miss Xiao Long, I don’t suppose you could inform me as to the current whereabouts of Jaune Arc?” Slowing to a surprised stop, Yang blinked in confusion as the girl addressed her by name. Tilting her head she did her best to see if she could recognize the girl, but noticing the golden emblem on her forehead she was certain she’d remember someone with such a distinct detail.

“I uhh…” Still stunned, Yang simply stood there as Blake caught up to her and stared across at the girl addressing them.

“He said his mission would finish at approximately 2, ‘give or take a few minutes’. I have been waiting since precisely 1 in order to account for these ‘few minutes’ and have yet to receive any further details as to his location.” Frowning slightly, the girl glanced once more at the watch at her wrist, and shook her head. “As it is now exactly 2:06, I can only begin to worry that something unaccounted for has caused a delay in his return.”

To their surprise, the girl’s expression seemed to turn to one of concern. Blake looked to Yang who could only give a bewildered shrug back to her.

“I’m sorry, do we know each other?” Feeling a pang of guilt that this girl had come to speak to her by name when she hadn’t the slightest inkling as to her identity, Yang bit her lip nervously as she watched the girl look up from her watch and extend her hand.

“Ciel Soleil. I apologize for not introducing myself sooner, my mind was focused on something else. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” An almost mechanical smile formed on her face as Ciel shook Yang’s hand, and then Blakes. Immediately after her eyes flicked back to the watch on her wrist and then to the docks.

“Oh! Right, you’re Jaune’s date to the dance aren’t you!” Immediately beaming at the girl, not having expected to meet her so suddenly, Yang glanced back to the docks and shrugged. “As for Jaune, I’m sure he’s fine. He’s never been the best with time so I wouldn’t worry too much. At the very least he can handle himself if something  _ does _ go wrong.”

“Very well.” Despite her stern and serious demeanor, Ciel seemed to relax slightly as she turned her gaze back to the pair. “I believe you had something you wished to ask of me?”

“We were hoping you could tell us where we could get some dresses. We know it’s last minute but would you be willing to help us?” Giving a hopeful smile, Blake watched as Ciel looked between the two with a raised brow.

“Under normal circumstances I would be forced to decline, as it is improper to be so unprepared for such a major event and personally I’ve already completed the majority of my preparations. However, given that Jaune has yet to obtain his own personal formal wear, I suppose it is only fitting that the two of you accompany us as well. In fact, obtaining formal wear was my next scheduled destination as soon as Jaune arrives back in Atlas, whenever that may be, so if the two of you are willing to wait...” Glancing back down at her watch in visible frustration, Ciel seemed to sigh in defeat.

“Are you alright?” Yang and Blake shared a look as Ciel glanced at her watch for the fourth time since they’d met her.

“I apologize, free time is something that I’m not quite used to having, but since my time meeting Jaune I’ve had  _ surprising _ amounts available to me over the past two days.” Ciel fidgeted slightly, her discomfort obvious.

“Well I’m sure we could show you a thing or two to kill some time.” With a smirk, Yang withdrew her scroll, and after a series of button presses and swipes, her scroll began to emit vibrant colors and playing music. “I’d like to introduce you to a little game called  _ ‘Soaring Ninja, Total Annihilation’ _ . I gotta warn you though, I’m rather skilled in way of the Ninja~”

“Really now?” Blake crossed her arms and gave Yang a bemused look. 

“Well, in game anyways…” Yang pouted slightly, feeling the wind beneath her sails pulled away slightly, when she heard a second level of music. To her surprise, Ciel had apparently already found and opened the game on her scroll and was quickly scanning through the rules and controls.

“Very well, this seems simple enough. Given the circumstances I suppose this is an acceptable way to pass the time.” With a neutral expression, Ciel exchanged her scroll’s information with Yang, and moments later the combat music began. Blake sat next to Yang, gently resting her head on the girl’s shoulder, and watched as the two began to duke it out.


	8. A Train Ride

“I don’t think I can ever look at a casserole again…”

Despite the smooth way in which the airship traveled, that despite horizontal, vertical, or even angled movements the passengers were capable of standing upright, Jaune Arc found himself wobbling side to side desperately holding onto the overhead supports hanging down in the cabin with one hand while the other hand was clamped firmly over his mouth. He groaned, his face turning the lightest shade of green, as he did his best to try and settle his stomach. In his mind he’d thought he was over his motion sickness, with the lengthy train travel and the constant boarding of ships to carry out missions, but with a stomach full of nearly 7 different types of casseroles he found himself having a difficult time keeping it all down.

“Yeah, I get what you mean. Oh, oh! Maybe next time you can ask them to make  _ pie _ instead. Or cake! Or-” Nora Valkyrie on the other hand was having no troubles with her stomach, which was made even more impressive by the fact she’d eaten nearly triple what Jaune had eaten. By the end of the meal they’d been treated to she made sure not a single dish had even a speck of food left. Eagerly moving around the cargo space she began to fantasize and dream about the potential for different types of Mantle cuisine they might be able to get from the people they aided.

“Nora, we shouldn’t focus on the rewards we get for completing missions. The important thing is that we perform the tasks the best we can and to keep everyone safe. Taking advantage of their hospitality isn’t the reason we became Huntsman.” Despite the success of their mission and subsequent feast provided by the many mothers of the children they’d escorted to and from school, Ren appeared to be in a rather gloomy mood.

“Please, don’t act as if you wouldn’t have chowed down if they had some of those disgusting green slime drinks you’re always on about!” Nora crossed her arms and stared at Ren with a raised brow and a smirk.

“I-” Ren paused briefly, at first making a gesture as if he were about to deny her claim, though as he thought it over he seemed to go into a state of contemplation before frowning. “You don’t suppose they have the ingredients this far inland do you?”

Nora chuckled as Ren began to list off the potential ingredients for the algae concoction he’d produced many times back at Beacon. Luckily for Jaune, their endless discussion about food came to an end as the airship landed softly on one of the docking pads present in front of Atlas Academy. Immediately he rushed out of the door and onto the solid ground where he began to take a series of deep breaths as his team departed the ship behind him, the ship itself taking off seconds later.

“I didn’t think I was gonna make it…” Wheezing and doing his best to stand upright, Jaune already began to feel leagues better than he did, though he wasn’t going to tempt fate with any sudden movements.

“Oh come on Jaune, what’s puking all over a priceless piece of Atlas tech compared to fighting a secret battle that could determine the very fate of Remnant and the lives of everyone we know and love!” Although her words held a dramatic weight, Nora spoke as if she hadn’t a care in the world and gave Jaune a solid pat on the back. Even if she was mostly teasing him, the sudden weight in his gut when he thought too heavily about the grand scheme of things only made him feel more nauseous.

“That isn’t funny Nora.” With a stern glare in her direction, Ren shook his head before staring at the ground and letting out a sigh. “Look, let’s just report back that we’ve completed our mission and get ready for the next one.”

“Whaaat? We just finished one mission, and this is supposed to be a week of rest and relaxation! I’m sure we can afford at least a little time off!” Pouting in his direction, Nora’s bubbly voice faded slightly as she stared at her companion, lost in thought and worrying deeply about what was going through his head.

“You guys can go ahead if you want, I’m supposed to meet Ciel here at…” Jaune snapped from his existential stomach ache as he withdrew his scroll to check the time. “Oh crap, I’m late!”

Looking up from his scroll in a panic Jaune let his eyes wander the docks in front of them for any sign of Ciel. They hadn’t known each other long but one thing Jaune did know about her was that punctuality was key. In a panic that she’d already left, given he'd half expected her to suddenly appear before him tapping her watch, Jaune paused and squinted as he saw three figures sitting down on the stairs that led up to the school.

Urgently rushing over in hopes he hadn’t offended her, Jaune quickly led Nora and Ren to the trio and was surprised to see not only Ciel, but Yang and Blake sitting with her in wait.

“Is that her?” Recognizing the two from their party, Ren glanced at the dark skinned girl in Atlas colors staring down at her scroll and rapidly moving her thumbs across the screen as she held it like a controller. He hadn't intended to make any assumptions, but based on how Jaune had described her Ren hadn't imagined his first meeting with Ciel would involve watching her play a game on her scroll.

“Come...on...so…close...NO!” Within earshot, the three of them could hear Yang audibly shouting at her device as she too tapped wildly across the screen. To further show her enthusiasm and determination Yang was moving the scroll every which way, turning and lifting the device the louder she yelled until a dramatic ‘NO’ caused her to fall back into the arms of Blake with a huff of defeat.

“Hey, is uhh, everything okay?” Jaune stopped in his tracks a few feet from the group as Yang shouted and fell over. His eyes went wide in surprise as he looked between her and Blake, and then to Ciel, who seemed to have the tiniest hint of a smile on her face as she shut her scroll and tucked the device away.

“We’re good, Yang was just having a  _ very _ intense match with Ciel here in some sort of ninja game. Turns out Ciel is a natural and, well…” Blake chuckled and gestured down to the defeated blonde collapsed dramatically in her lap. She met eyes with her while laughing which was responded to with a huff and Yang sitting back up.

“There’s no  _ way _ that was her first time playing. I mean those first few matches felt like it, but out of nowhere she just started kicking my butt! You totally played me!” Yang shot a suspicious look to Ciel who simply shook her head as she stood to greet Jaune and the others.

“At first there was quite a bit to learn, but I quickly noticed that only a few key button combinations appeared to be effective and then it was simply a matter of timing and muscle memory to master the controls. From there it was rather easy to predict and counter your actions based on your style of play.” Ciel shrugged as she glanced down at Yang who seemed both bewildered and insulted by her response. Frowning slightly Ciel brushed a few stray hairs behind her ear and attempted to reconcile their interaction. “You certainly are good at the game though, and I’ll admit it was genuinely a fun experience.”

As Ciel pursed her lips, blushing slightly at the admittance that she’d enjoyed playing the game, she turned her focus to Jaune and the two that had approached beside him. Stepping forward she extended a hand to each of them with a soft and somewhat forced smile.

“Ciel Soleil.” For a moment it seemed as if Ciel had more to say as she looked between Ren and Nora, but taking a small breath she simply accepted their hands as they shook.

“I’m Nora! Though I’m sure you totally all know about me already. I mean, who  _ wouldn’t _ want to know me and my two friends here? And no, I don’t mean Ren and Jaune.” Waggling her eyebrows as she shook Ciel’s hand, Nora then flexed and kissed each of her biceps with a smirk.

“Lie Ren. Please, call me Ren.” The sour attitude that had been clouding Ren’s expressions moments ago had faded as he gave a polite bow of his head to Ciel upon taking her hand as well. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Pleasure to meet you both.” Ciel couldn’t help but stare at Nora’s performance before she turned her attention to Jaune once more. Lifting her hand she glanced at her watch, noticing he was at least 20 minutes later, and resisted the urge to sigh. Instead, she looked up to Jaune and took a hesitant step forward, before slowly extending her arms and wrapping them around him with an awkwardly focused expression.

For a moment Jaune simply froze in shock, but realizing what was happening he quickly returned the gesture and gave Ciel a light hug. Almost immediately she pulled away and put her arms behind her back, looking away with burning cheeks as everyone else starred in equal surprise.

“I uhh, sorry for being late?” Jaune wasn’t sure what to say as Ciel once more shook her head and gave a sideways glance to Yang and Blake, who were both in awe of the sudden interaction.

“It’s quite alright. You did specify that it would be  _ ‘give or take a few minutes’ _ , and by fortunate circumstances I was able to meet more of your friends. They were quite hospitable and we found a way to pass the time in a most enjoyable manner.” Still blushing, Ciel turned back to Jaune and gave him a small smile. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Uhh yeah! Same! It’s good to see you too. Again. Here…” Jaune rambled on a bit to which Nora snickered, causing him to begin blushing as well.

“Anywhooo, not to ruin the moment or anything, but aren’t we all supposed to be going to get our  _ dress _ on?” Interrupting the awkward moment, Yang stood up with Blake, giving the girl a brief dramatic twirl as they approached the group.

“Ah!” Remembering the plans they’d laid out, Ciel immediately glanced at her watch once more before nodding and pulling out her scroll. “Thank you Miss Xiao Long, I’d almost forgotten to request our transportation down to the city’s metro station.”

“You can just call me Yang you know. And...wait, metro station? You mean we’re not just going to fly down to the dress shop or whatever?” As Ciel quickly tapped in the request for transport, she closed the device and gave Yang a bewildered look.

“Of course not. In a city as dense and populated as Atlas one simply doesn’t  _ land _ an aircraft in the street to go shopping. When we depart the school we’ll land in one of the few dozen metro stations through the city and take a hard-light train to our destination within one of Atlas’s many commercial districts. It’s going to take at least a little bit of time to get there but Atlas has quite the night life so the majority of buildings remain open rather late into the evening.” Pursing her lips Ciel gave a look between the group that had formed around her and frowned with concern. “Is this going to be the first time any of you have traveled through the city itself?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it, but it looks that way. We’ve spent all our time either in the academy or down in Mantle, I guess shopping never really came up.” Blake thought about the fact that even with the amount of time they’d been in Atlas nearly every minute had been spent within Atlas Academy as opposed to the surrounding city. Glancing past the docks and down towards the twinkling skyscrapers of the floating city, she wondered what the city itself was like. They didn’t have  _ any _ buildings like that back in Vale, and certainly nothing like it in Menagerie.

“In that case, would any of you be interested in a small tour of the city when we arrive? It really is quite the splendid city with a great deal of history behind each and every building. I’d be happy to share anything I can during our trip if you’d allow me.” Ciel gave a nervous look to the group, expecting her idea to be shot down. From her first impressions of this particular group none of them quite seemed like they’d be interested in history.

“That sounds delightful.” Ren caught Ciel’s attention with a smile and a nod. “If we’re going to be staying and defending the city, the least we could do is learn a little about it. It would certainly help us gain a better understanding of the conditions Mantle faces and what exactly we’re fighting for after all.”

“Then it’s settled!” Jaune gave an enthusiastic nod, as did the rest of the group as he gave a wide and confident grin to Ciel. “Ciel, we’d love it if you’d be our tour guide through the city of Atlas today!”

With a small nod and a skipped beat of her heart, Ciel suddenly felt a rush of genuine excitement for what was to come. As if on cue, an airship slowly hummed into place and rested gently on the docks in preparation for their group.

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road!” Pulling Blake to her side, Yang pointed dramatically towards the airship and led the group onwards as they prepared to depart down into the city of Atlas.

\---

The metro station was much more crowded than any of them had expected. Given the fact that their entire morning had been spent searching for people where there were none, Blake and Yang were both surprised by the amount of hustle and bustle that occurred within the city. Ciel had been kind enough to guide them from the dock where the airship had dropped them off to the closest railway, but it hadn’t been an easy task for any of them.

Enormous skyscraper structures made it impossible to see one building past another and merely looking up towards the highest floors of any one structure was enough to put strain on a person’s neck. Jaune himself felt woozy just imagining that height and shuddered as he recalled being flung dramatically off the Beacon Cliffs and into the forests below. All this time later and he still didn’t feel as if he had an appropriate landing strategy should he find himself falling from such heights again.

“I apologize for the congested state of things, we’re in a more business oriented section of the city. Here there are at least 20 or more structures of this height dedicated entirely to managing the Schnee Dust Company’s imports, exports, managing their funding and so forth. Despite the embargo, there is still a great deal of internal business between the SDC and the Atlas Military taking place, thus the high amount of traffic we see for these particular structures.” Gesturing to one such structure they were walking past, everyone could see plain as day the words “Schnee Dust Company” written on an awning over the front doors of the structure. The surface of the building was smooth and gray, identically carved pillars creating a sense of beauty in the structure on either side of the entrance, and as it reached upwards towards the sky the whites, grays, and occasional turquoise of the structure formed simple yet elegant patterns displaying the pristine architecture one would expect of Atlas.

“It’s so much different than Mantle, you could fit probably a hundred families in one of these buildings alone…” Blake trailed off as she pictured the situation down in Mantle. Ren had certainly hit the nail on the head when he mentioned gaining a better understanding of the conditions in the city below, but with a sudden arm around her side she found herself smiling once more.

“True, but given the choice between snooty SDC guys or some good company and home cookin, I think the choice is pretty easy.” Yang gave Blake a gentle kiss on the cheek to comfort her as they turned their heads towards what they could only assume was the metro station.

“Now then, as you can see this is one of the many metro stations placed equidistant throughout the city. These trains take advantage of hard light technology to maximize the durability of the railways as well as create the potential to change the destination of the train by redirecting the pathway created by the specialized dust. This way…” Ciel paused for a moment as she stopped at the base of the steps to continue her miniature lecture regarding the railways of Atlas. She could see the almost blank stairs of the group and could only imagine how much of the information she’d just shared they would actually retain, and quickly decided to simplify her explanation so they could make better time. “This way the trains can travel all over Atlas in a fast and efficient way.”

“That sounds a lot better than the Argus train we took. One way there and one way back. Doesn’t really give you a lot of options.” Jaune nodded, quickly doing his best to assure Ciel that he was listening as he took a step closer to stand by her side.

“Well, until we broke it anyways.” Blake recalled their derailing of the train in order to protect the passenger s from the onslaught of Grimm that had been brought down.

“You broke it?” Ciel tilted her head looking between Blake and Jaune.

“It was for a good cause! You see, there were a whole bunch of Grimm attacking the train, and well, the automated turrets were broke, and so Ren here used his semblance to hide the citizens while we sorta detached the back of the train and uhh-” Quickly scrambling to make it sound like they didn’t just go around destroying trains, Jaune did his best to retell the chaos of their time aboard the Argus Limited.

“Technically  _ we _ didn’t break it. A Sphinx managed to spit out a big fireball onto the tracks the same time we killed it, so if anyone is to blame it’s the Grimm.” Frowning slightly, Yang wondered how different their journey would’ve been had that train not crashed. Between the events regarding the lamp and their brief stint with the Apathy she only wished they’d killed the beast sooner. With a smaller shudder Yang shook her head and glanced back up the busy steps towards the metro station.

“I see.” Not entirely convinced, Ciel simply turned her head and escorted the group up the snowy white steps that led inside.

To their amazement, but not to their surprise, the inside of the station was nearly triple that of the station they’d stopped at before departing to Argus. Even with the massive nature of the building it still managed to be back with a sea of people all wearing the usual Atlas styles they’d come to expect. Dress shirts, jackets, blazers and dresses, everyone around them looked as if they’d just gotten out of or were on their way to the most important meeting of their lives, and furthermore not a single color in the crowd stood out from the sea of white, gray, and blue that Atlas was known for.

Ciel wasted no time at all, rushing the group through the crowd as quickly as possible and through a series of terminals where they simply tapped their scrolls to the surface to gain entry. A few times they were worried they’d lose another in the crowd, but through use of the buddy system and interlaced fingers, each pair managed to make their way towards the edge of the station without difficulty. Even Jaune was surprised to find his hand taken by Ciel, though he imagined it was more out of necessity than any deeper feelings, but the both of them found the other with a hint of red in their cheeks as they waited for the train to arrive.

“Now then…” Doing her best to distract from the moment, Ciel gestured to the tracks composed of hexagonal hard light just as the train pulled into the station. There was a subtle purple glow coming from beneath the train, and as Ciel hurried their group on she explained in more detail how the trains functioned. “As you saw, the purple color beneath the trains is created by a constant low-level supply of gravity dust. Without any direct contact between the trains and the rails, it minimizes the impact the train’s movement might have on the hard light dust which would in the long term cause damage and require higher rates of dust use. With this system in place, there is little to no actual energy requirement other than the tiny amount of energy required to sustain the tracks once they’re actually formed.”

Ciel had closed her eyes as she explained the system, doing her best to visualize the connection between the track and train in her mind, but as she nervously listened to the silence of the car she cracked open one eye to see that practically the entire group had pressed themselves up against a window and were staring out across the city. Jaune, despite looking in the direction of the window, had at the very least remained by her side, and with a defeated sigh she walked over to the group with a grin.

“It really is beautiful isn’t it?” As the buildings whizzed by, Ciel couldn’t help but internally identify each and every structure they passed. Still, she held a deep appreciation for the beauty that surrounded them, the beauty that was her home of Atlas.

“It really is.” Jaune’s voice surprised Ciel, and she turned to see him smiling down at her. She’d mostly resumed her natural habits of talking to herself, and hadn’t really expected anyone to hear her. Jaune gestured towards a window a few feet from them that wasn’t crowded with faces pressed against the glass, and with a tuck of her hair behind her ear Ciel nodded softly and walked with Jaune to the empty space. “So uhh, tell us about some of these buildings! Like those over there, what sorta things go on over there?”

“Those? Those are the primary sources for food produce for all of Atlas. Meat products, plant products, synthetic alternatives, nearly anything that ends up served on a dish somewhere in the city starts in one of those buildings. In particular the higher floors are individually owned by wealthier families who wish to produce very specific goods for either their own enjoyment or to generate profits on resale.” These details seemed to get the attention of the group once more as Yang shot Ciel a shocked look.

“You mean  _ all _ the food in Atlas comes from those buildings? That’s crazy, how can they make that much in one place!?” Yang’s surprise was matched by the rest, and even Blake seemed deep in thought about the logistics of producing that much food.

“Menagerie has fields upon fields, and so did Vale for the most part. I wonder if by using as much vertical space as possible they manage to do pretty much the same as we thing, but up instead of out? They might even go down into the earth as well…” Stepping onto her toes, Blake glanced towards the base of the structures that came in and out of view as other buildings rushed by the windows of the train.

“How much?” Ren spoke softly at first, before he turned his gaze to Ciel. To her surprise, he seemed rather frustrated. “How much food do they make?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know exact details, only that from what I’ve heard it’s incredibly unlikely that Atlas will ever experience a food shortage. Most of the systems are self-sustaining, and even if there were to be a power or dust shortage there’s enough renewable sources of energy that-” Ciel contemplated the systems in place, but Ren simply shook his head and glared back out the window.

“I don’t care about their power systems. I just-” Ren felt the silence of the cabin as he turned to face the group. Looks of concern rested on him from all sides, and Nora placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. Shaking his head, he shrugged her off and walked to the end of the cabin to move to a different car on the train while muttering under his breath. “You wouldn’t understand…”

“I uhh, I’ll go talk to him…” Pursing her lips nervously, Nora watched as a brooding Ren left the car alone, and quickly she rushed after him. Behind her she could hear Jaune attempt to redirect the conversation back to the architecture, asking more details about their renewable energy sources.

Stepping into another car, Nora could see Ren standing as far from the group of Atlesian that shared the space as possible. His eyes were fixed firmly on the city beyond them and she slowly approached with a gentle touch to his back.

“None of them understand. All that food, all that greed, when people in Mantle barely have the necessities to get by…” Ren’s fists were clenched tightly, though he didn’t attempt to shrug off Nora’s touch this time as she wrapped her arms around his waist. “This party too, we’re going to spend who knows how much lien for clothes we’ll wear once, lien that could be spent providing dust and weapons to Mantle so they wouldn’t have to rely on Atlas so much to defend themselves…”

Nora let out a slow sigh, staring out the window with Ren as she squeezed him tight.

“You remember why we went to Beacon right? To protect those people that couldn’t help themselves, just like we're doing now, but we still had fun while we did it. Mantle relies on Atlas because there are Huntsman like us willing to lend a hand, like all those villages we helped that relied on Beacon.” Nora forced a smile at her reflection, and as she looked up at Ren’s face in the glass, she could see a frown planted firmly along his lips.

“Things were different. Back then it was just Grimm, not… all of this.” Ren’s eyes shifted slightly, glancing towards the others in the train that despite paying them no mind could pose a problem if he spoke too loudly or said too much.

“It’s not all that different. We’re still together like always, fighting the good fight so people don’t end up like we did, and we can’t do that if we’re feeling all down in the dumps.” Gripping Ren’s waist tight, Nora forced him to turn towards her, and stepping up on her toes she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in tight. “Grimm are attracted to negativity Ren. We learned that the first day of classes and even  _ I _ remember that lesson. As Huntsman, if we want to protect the people we have to set an example, we have to stay positive and happy, because if we aren’t, then who will be?”

“We can be happy in ways that don’t waste so many resources on-” Ren continued to shake his head, his voice raising slightly, but Nora buried her face into him, squeezing tighter around him as he felt something begin to trickle along his neck.

“I know, Ren, I know. But please don’t destroy yourself over this. We have enough to deal with as it is, so can’t we just enjoy this one thing together?” Pulling away, Nora sniffled slightly as she looked to Ren with teary eyes. “We’re still fighting the good fight, but there’s no reason we can’t look after ourselves either. Who knows the next time we’ll get to  _ have _ a party like this, to see the smiling faces of our friends all together. After this, some of us might not get that next time…” 

Ren’s throat tightened as he looked down at Nora’s pleading expression, but as he took a slow and shaking breath, he slowly wrapped his arms around Nora and squeezed her as tightly as he could. In all his life Ren had never imagined he would be the one to make Nora cry, and if he couldn’t make her feel safe and happy, then who could?

“I’m sorry…” Fighting Salem had entirely enveloped Ren’s mind, and he hadn’t even realized the space he’d started to put between his friends because of it. Ren held on tight, feeling the warmth of the girl he’d been together with his whole life, and realized how much he hoped he’d never have to let go of her.

“It’s okay, but don’t make me worry like that again okay?” Nora rubbed her eyes free from their tears across Ren’s outfit before smiling up at him and giving a light punch to the arm. “I know how you feel about things here in Atlas, but there’s only so much we can do at a time. So let’s worry about stopping  _ you know who _ first, and then once all is said and done we can loop back around to solving world hunger, okay?”

“Sounds good.” Cracking the tiniest of smiles, Ren took a heavy breath to try and calm himself. Glancing back towards the window, out across the city of Atlas, Ren realized that Nora was right. If they didn’t stop Salem first, there wouldn’t be any people left for food to ever be a worry. For now, all they could do was continue working on the Amity project and focus on reuniting Remnant, and turning back to Nora he couldn’t help but feel the smallest of hints that something changing within him.


	9. Painted Nails, New Clothes, & Cute People

Ruby found herself spinning far faster than she ever had before, the world around her a blur of colors rushing by, before she came to an all too sudden stop. Her hands pulled from the girl that had spun her, and she quickly found herself completely off balance and began to fall sideways. Doing her best to right herself, she overcorrected and began to instead fall in the opposite direction, and unable to right herself a second time fell face first into the bed of her teammate Blake Belladonna.

“Penny, can we stop for a moment? I don’t feel so… ughh.” Ruby’s face was a light shade of green as she sat up in the bed, still wobbling side to side, and rested her face on the stone surface that divided the bunks in order to support herself.

“According to Weiss we still require approximately 5 more hours of lessons in order to ensure that you’re more than capable of performing any and all dances that we may be required to take part in during the ball!” Grinning eagerly, Penny extended a hand out to Ruby in an attempt to lift her from the bed and resume their practice.

“I just, can’t we take a break? I mean we still have a few days right?” The world had slowly started to stop spinning and Ruby managed to focus on Penny with a pitiful smile.

“I suppose this is true. With over 72 hours till the aforementioned event I can see several opportunities to finish our dance practice within that time frame!” Penny withdrew her hand and instead sat on the bed beside Ruby, looking at the woozy girl with the same energetic smile she’d worn since they started. “If we’re ceasing practice for the time being, are there any other activities you’d wish to partake in in the mean time? There are a few missions listed within the Atlas system that we could perform together!”

“How about we just relax a little, and just, you know, hang out?” Ruby couldn’t possibly imagine going from hours of dance training to hours of combat, especially considering she was afraid to lift her head from the wall lest she faceplant onto the floor.

“Oh, that sounds excellent! We can spend this opportunity to paint our nails, try on new clothes, and talk about cute people!” Penny hopped up and down eagerly on the bed, her hands lifted in front of her as she glanced at her gloved hands in contemplation.

“Yeah I… wait what?” Ruby was hit with a brief wave of nostalgia going back to the first time she’d met Penny during the Vytal Festival so long ago. At that time Penny had also been eager to try the things she’d mentioned, but this time something was different. “Cute _people_?”

“Hmm? Oh yes! In my time since Beacon I’ve done much more research into the types of relationships that form between people! I’ve learned about all sorts of things, that no matter who you are or what you identify as you’re capable of attraction between any other person of your liking if you so choose! I find it quite fascinating, it opens up so many more opportunities than I’d initially realized!” Penny looked to Ruby who had managed to lift her head far enough off the wall to give Penny a surprised look.

“I guess that’s true, I’d never really thought too hard about it.” Ruby thought about Penny’s point before raising a curious brow with a smirk. “Anybody catch your eye then? Cute boys or otherwise?”

With a cheeky nudge of her elbow, Ruby watched as Penny’s expression faded somewhat.

“Actually no.” Frowning to herself, Penny glanced down towards her lap and shook her head. “While I’m capable of studying the relationships and bonds that form between people, I myself have never really been able to partake. The General usually has me so busy with diagnostics tests and ensuring my system is up to the task of being the Protector of Mantle, a job which also has prevented me from having enough free time to experience much of anything.”

“Oh.” Ruby pursed her lips, looking nervously to Penny and then around the room. Her legs dangled off the edge of the bed, and she began to kick them out before awkwardly rubbing the back of her head. “Well, what if we like, you know, did something?”

“Something?” Penny lifted her head, tilting it curiously at the potential implications of Ruby’s offer.

“I don’t know, maybe like, we could you know, go on a date or something?” Ruby’s face was flushed as she stumbled through her words. “You know, give you the chance to experience those bonds and stuff with someone you already kinda know, since we have the time and all…”

“A date? Us?” Penny’s expression turned bright, her eyes going wide as her smile returned in full force, and she quickly pulled Ruby into a tight hug. “That would be sensational! Oh thank you Ruby, thank you so much! You have no idea how much this means to me!”

“Yup. Any time-” Struggling to get her words out, the strength of Penny’s hug squeezing the air out of her, Ruby gasped slightly as she was released from the embrace. Penny immediately stood up and began pacing the room, her mind filled with the endless possibilities of what the date could entail.

“What should we do! I believe common date activities include seeing a movie, perhaps going out to a restaurant to dine together, walks in romantic and scenic locations such as parks or along rivers…” Penny’s list began to grow longer and longer as she paced, and Ruby’s head began to spin once more at the overwhelming number of possibilities.

“A walk!” Quickly interrupting her companion, Ruby shouted out the first thing that came to mind. “I mean, if you’d like to. A walk to maybe a movie or… do you eat?”

“I do not! However through elaborate observation I have become quite capable of mimicking the series of actions that go into consuming a plate of food! However, given I am incapable of digesting-” Penny gestured to her stomach when Ruby quickly stood up and put a hand on Penny’s.

“I think I get it!” Afraid of how in depth a description Penny would provide as to how she removed food from her body, Ruby instead offered a soft smile and interlaced her fingers with Penny’s. “So, a walk and a movie?”

“It’s a date! Oh how I’ve always wanted to say that!” Wiggling her hips eagerly, Penny’s eyes glowed briefly as she analyzed a number of simultaneous potential routes the pair could walk. “Now then, if we walk along this street in the mercantile district of Atlas, we’ll be capable of purchasing gifts such as flowers for one another while having an excellent view of the Atlas skyline, and after approximately 23 minutes will arrive at a theater where we’ll have a selection of three different movies to choose from!”

Ruby’s eyes were wide as Penny mapped out practically every minute of their date. She hadn’t expected things to go so smoothly given she’d never ever actually asked anyone out before. She felt a flutter in her chest that she’d never felt before as she repeated in her mind that she was  _ actually _ about to go on a date with Penny. Her body felt strangely warm, but she was also happy.

“That sounds good to me.” Blushing slightly, Ruby let Penny lead her by the hand towards the exit of the school.

“Now then, please hold on tightly.” Penny glanced out across the city, her sensors indicating the most efficient flight path she would need to take in order to arrive at their destination as quickly as possible, and before Ruby realized what was happening Penny was suddenly carrying her bridal style.

“Penny wai-” Without time to object, Ruby’s face suddenly felt the rush of cool air as Penny rocketed the pair upwards and blasted them off towards the city.

Thankfully her aura was enough to keep her from becoming too cold, and she was rather thankful Penny was made of a durable material given how tight she found herself holding on. Blinking a few times as she adjusted her face to best block out the wind, she was amazed at the beauty of the city below. Sparkling lights illuminated the city as the sun set in the distance, which in itself was a beautiful sight of oranges, blues, and reds.

In no time at all Penny was descending down into the city, a small crowd of people moving to get out of the way as her boosters kicked up a small layer of dust and pebbles. Touching down on a red brick path, Penny gently placed Ruby on her feet, and the pair were briefly mesmerized by their surroundings.

Street vendors lined the path, and in usual Atlas style they still managed to seem somewhat regal. Neatly trimmed hedges lined the walkway, small rose bushes popping up every few feet, and the light trickling of water from a nearby fountain could be heard. On either side of them were restaurants several stories tall, shops ranging from clothing to specialty gifts filled every inch of space, and it wasn’t until Ruby felt a brush against her hand that she was pulled from her trance.

“Now then, let us begin our date!” Penny had taken Ruby’s hand into her own, doing her best to keep the pressure light enough that she wouldn’t hurt her friend, but firm enough to signal she had no intention of letting go. Fortunately for her, Ruby matched her strength, signaling similar feelings.

The pair began walking, the town around them abuzz with conversation as people walked the same path they did, stopping to purchase food, enjoying the view with loved ones, or simply on their way elsewhere. However, between the two of them, there was a silence that neither quite knew how to break. This territory was entirely new for the both of them, and Ruby couldn’t help but blush as the pair walked the path hand in hand.

“So uhh, Penny! How have you been since Beacon?” Nervous, but hoping that she could break the silence between them, Ruby realized this was the perfect opportunity for the two to catch up on all the time they’d spent apart.

“Oh, I’ve been wonderful! Since the Vytal Festival revealed who I truly was to Remnant I’ve been able to do all sorts of things for people I wasn’t able to before! As you've seen, thanks to my new body I’m now capable of flight and have a much higher capability for combat as well! It’s thanks to the General and my father that I’m able to be the Protector of Mantle!” Penny’s delight was infectious, and Ruby couldn’t help but be thankful that her friend had been enjoying herself all this time. However, there was still one tiny thing in her mind she couldn’t help but ask. They’d talked about it briefly in passing once before, but their conversation had been abruptly cut off by Grimm attacking Mantle.

“About that, your new body and all. You kind’ve, well you know,  _ died _ didn’t you?” Ruby couldn’t quite figure out how to phrase her thought properly, and instead just spit out what she was thinking. Despite how cheerful Penny had been when they’d talked about it before, it still tugged at the back of Ruby’s mind that that sort of experience should leave some lasting impression. “I mean like, obviously not like  _ died _ died, since you’re here and all. It’s just, you know, after the Vytal Festival and everything that happened I wasn’t sure what else to think…”

“I suppose I did didn’t I?” Penny was rather nonchalant, causing Ruby to drop her head in disbelief as Penny placed a thoughtful finger to her chin. “For me it was like I was in a deep sleep! I was ready to battle Miss Nikos when her attack caught me completely off guard! I suppose it shouldn’t have been a surprise, magnetism versus, well me. There wasn’t really any pain that I remember, but everything did go black for a very long time.”

“Were you scared?” Ruby shuddered at the description of Penny’s experience. For everything to just go dark like she described, it terrified her.

“Perhaps. I don’t really remember if I’m honest. I woke up in Atlas with my new body already constructed and my father standing over me. I had many questions, and my father explained to me in great detail everything that had occurred after my systems had shut down. I was sad to hear about everything that happened, but when he told me that you and your team had made it out alive I found myself happy as well.” Smiling softly to herself, Penny chuckled softly. “Once he was certain I would be okay, father started on a new project right away. He’d mentioned that your sister had been badly hurt and that since she was my friend he would do everything he could to help her out.”

“I remember his face when he found out she’d painted the arm he'd made her.” Snickering to herself as well, Ruby couldn’t help but recall the first time they’d met Pietro Polendina. “That was right before I found out you were alright for the first time too. I wished we could’ve talked more at the time.”

“I did too, but now we have plenty of time to talk about all sorts of things! Like what have  _ you _ been up to! I was out for quite a long time! Did you have any adventures of your own after Beacon?” Penny had perked back up considerably as she turned to Ruby who gave a nervous chuckle.

“Well I mean, I guess you could call it an adventure. We sorta got lost on our way to Mantle, fought this scary scorpion guy named Tyrian, and then this scary Grimm called a nuc...nuckel… It was a big horse looking thingy with a creepy torso on top that had really stretchy arms.” Ruby grumbled as she tried to remember the complicated name of the Grimm they’d faced before getting to Haven, and shook her head with a huff. “Anyways, then we went to Haven, had another big fight, _totally_ saved the school from pretty much every bad guy we’d ever met all at the same time. After that we went to Argus, but our train got derailed during another big fight, and then we met Maria, and there were these creepy Apathy things, we finally got to Argus and had to steal a ship, fought a giant mech _and_ a giant leviathan Grimm, and then we got to Atlas!”

Ruby tilted her head thoughtfully, wondering if she’d missed any details, when she noticed the shocked expression Penny was wearing.

“You did all that before getting to Atlas? I would most certainly call that quite the adventure! That all sounds like such fun!” Penny’s eyes sparkled as she committed every detail of Ruby’s travels to memory.

“I guess you could call it that. I’m just glad we all got to Atlas in one piece.” Shrugging slightly, Ruby shook her head and did her best to resume smiling. “Anyways, yup! That about sums up my time since Beacon!”

“Sensational! I too am glad that each of you managed to arrive in Atlas each in one piece, given I myself arrived in four!” Penny let out another chuckle that left Ruby surprised.

“Did you just…” Gawking at how easily Penny could joke about her own destruction, Ruby found herself at a loss for words as Penny suddenly turned her attention elsewhere.

“Oh! Excellent, please wait here Ruby, I shall return shortly!” Penny’s eyes had fallen on a nearby vendor that was selling all manner of flower. She made her way over as Ruby did her best to try and see what Penny was doing, when her companion quickly returned, approaching her with a red rose in hand. “Here you are Ruby!”

“Ah, thank you.” Blinking a few times as she accepted the flower, she raised a brow looking between the flower and Penny.

“A token of my affections! This is another common way in which one expresses romantic interest, and given your semblance and the emblem you often keep on your belongings, I felt a rose to be most appropriate!” Grinning eagerly, Penny’s eyes fell to the silver emblem attached to Ruby’s belt.

“That makes sense.” Chuckling with how straightforward Penny was being, Ruby couldn’t help but blush as she openly stated that the flower was a romantic gesture towards her. Lifting the rose to her nose, she gave it a light sniff, before sliding the stem into one of the empty bullet holsters at her hip. “Thank you Penny, I really like it, especially as a… romantic gesture.”

Ruby’s blush deepened, her mind _still_ processing the fact this was a date.

“Did you not want it to be?” Penny could sense the nervousness in Ruby, and she tilted her head as her smile faltered briefly.

“Huh? No! I mean, yes I want it to be! It’s just-” Ruby frantically began to try and backpedal, watching as Penny’s expression turned from worried to simply confused. “It’s just, I’ve never actually  _ been _ on a date before. I’ve never even like, held hands or kissed anybody, and nobody has ever given me anything in a romantic sense. I’m just super nervous is all.”

“Ooh I see.” Penny nodded thoughtfully, thankful that she hadn’t done anything that could ruin the moment. “Well, if it helps, I’m having a wonderful time.”

“Really?” Ruby watched as Penny gave her a confident nod, extending her hand outwards once more to interlock it with hers. Ruby took a steady breath to calm herself, and with a nod of her own happily took her hand.

“Really really!” As the pair shared a lingering smile, Penny’s eyes suddenly went wide with surprise as a beeping noise began to emit from her body. “Oh no! We’re behind schedule; the movies we’re meant to see will be starting soon! We need to hurry!”

“Okay, but this time maybe wai-!” In usual Penny fashion, the instant she realizes they need to be somewhere, she immediately pulls Ruby tight and activates her thrusters. Without a moments hesitation, her thoughts overwhelmed by the excitement of their continued date, Penny blasts the pair just high enough through the air that they aren’t at risk of slamming into any of the pedestrians below. In no time flat, the pair are in front of a massive ornate movie theater that almost looked more like a formal studio than a casual hangout.

“Now, I believe we have three movies to choose from, however from analyzing the ratings of each I believe our best bet would be to see the new Spruce Willis film Tryhard 3: Tryharderest! What do you think Ruby?” As the pair glanced between the movie posters, Ruby steadied herself from their rather abrupt stop, and she managed a nod.

“Sounds good to me.” For Ruby, she was too focused on thoughts of the date to really care about what movie they saw together. The pair walked into the theater side by side, paying for tickets and finding seats near the center of the expansive theater.

The screen was enormous; Ruby had never seen anything ever close to its size in Vale, and as the light dimmed around them she heard an audible squeaking noise beside her.

With her arm placed on the armrest, her palm opening upwards, Penny’s eyes were fixated on her companion as opposed to the screen, and rapid bouncing in the seat was causing it to audibly squeak. Ruby chuckled, happily resting her arm on Penny’s and holding her hand as the movie began. Penny’s bouncing slowed to a stop as the screen filled with explosions, the title sequence to the movie playing out before them.

The movie was primarily action, and Ruby hadn’t even seen the second film so there were numerous callbacks that had her absolutely lost. Still, the combat scenes were exciting, and she found herself thoroughly enjoying herself.

About halfway through the movie, Penny leaned over to Ruby and whispered softly into her ear.

“I would now like to attempt a maneuver I’ve witnessed in many films, in which I pretend to yawn only to instead wrap my arm around your shoulder. Would you be okay with that?” Ruby pursed her lips, doing her best to repress laughter in the quiet theater, and instead simply nodded and leaned a little forward.

Penny gave an enthusiastic fake yawn as she stretched her arms upwards, her fingers interlacing as she stretched out her hands, before she lowered one arm slowly down and around Ruby. The pair blushed as Penny’s hand rested on Ruby’s shoulder, and Ruby furthered the gesture by leaning over and resting her head gently on Penny’s shoulder. The two of them smiled in unison, their eyes focused on the screen but their thoughts resting elsewhere.

They remained like this for the rest of the runtime, occasionally adjusting themselves to more comfortable positions, but otherwise doing their best to remain as close as possible. Only once the film ended did Penny lift her arm, the pair stood, and cheerfully they walked out into the cool Atlas night.

“That was a most entertaining film! I particularly enjoyed the ending. The twist reveal about the brother trying even harderer than the main character made for an epic finale!” Nodding to herself as the pair exited amongst a crowd of other moviegoers, the two of them walked a short distance to a railing that looked over the city. From where they stood, the shattered moon above shed light across them, the sun having vanished beyond the horizon.

“I’ve never had so many questions though! Now I need to see both the second movie  _ and _ wait for the sequel!” Ruby glanced out across the city, leaning forward on the railing as thoughts of the movie were slowly replaced with thoughts of Penny. Turning to the girl, she gave a nervous smile. “Anyways, what should we uhh, do now? It’s pretty late, I wonder if everyone else is back at the dorm already.”

“Hmm. I suppose we accomplished everything we set out to do, so I’d called the date a wonderful success! Although, there is one final thing I would like to consider before we officially call it a night.” Penny’s brow furrowed slightly, and for the first time during their date she actually seemed somewhat nervous.

“What do you-” Ruby tilted her head, her mind trying to imagine what Penny was inferring, when she sudden turned as red as her cape. “You don’t mean…”

“Well, in circumstances in which a date is considered successful, and the two individuals partaking consent, it is a common custom that the two end their evening with a kiss.” Penny fidgeted slightly, her cheeks blushing as she looked to Ruby, whose brain had been completely fried in that instant. “Of course, if you would like to simply end the night here and head back, I would understand as well.”

“I- I uhh.” Blinking, Ruby frantically started to figure out how she should respond. Her eyes went from Penny, towards the moon, to the city, and then to random people passing them by, before she settled her gaze once more on Penny and smiled. “I think I’d… like the kiss.”

Penny’s expression lit up, and she extended her hands out to take Ruby’s. The pair awkwardly looked away for a moment, squirming in anticipation, before their eyes met. Slowly, each leaned towards the other, their eyes closing shut until their lips met. Neither of them knew what to expect, how long the kiss should last or what it would feel like, but as they felt the warmth of the other their lips curled into smiles pressed together. Pulling away slowly, they opened their eyes, each pursing their lips as excitement began to overwhelm each of them.

“SEN-SATIONAL!” Penny’s eagerness exploded outwards as the thruster in her feet launched her in the air, she began to twirl and squeal in absolute joy as Ruby stood shaky legged against the railing. She lifted a hand to her lips, gently pressing it to them as she relived the moment again and again, her body filled with so much joy she didn’t even know how to express it.

In a flash Penny swept down, picking Ruby up in her arms and carrying her up into the sky. The pair stared at one another as she spun up, and Ruby activated her semblance, the two turning into a weaving blur of green and red spiraling up into the sky. A burst of petals exploded outwards with the broken moon a beautiful background for the moment as Penny held Ruby tightly in her arms, the pair continuing to gaze into one another’s eyes as they once more shared a kiss. Penny wiggled in the air, absolutely giddy from the experience, before she blasted the pair towards Atlas at record speeds.

The subsequent landing and walk through the halls was quiet, but not the least big awkward. The pair were simply too overwhelmed with emotion to talk, but they moved hand in hand every step of the way, until finally they’d arrived outside of Team RWBY’s dorm.

“Well I uhh, I guess we’re here.” Still wiggling slightly, unable to control the feelings flowing through her body, Ruby glanced between the door and Penny with a wish that their night never had to end.

“Here we are indeed!” Penny was hopping up and down as she had done at the theater, her eyes fixated on Ruby with the same grin she’d been wearing since their kiss. “I had a most spectacular evening with you Ruby, and I couldn’t have imagined that a date could be such a magical experience. Thank you very much for this opportunity!”

“Yeah, of course! I mean, we could, you know, always do it again sometime.” Ruby, still blushing, watched as Penny’s expression somehow seemed to grow brighter.

“You mean continued dates? As in, we’d be… dating?” Penny’s bouncing had stopped, and for a moment Ruby worried her system had been overloaded.

“Sure, I mean, yeah, totally. If that’s, you know, cool or whatever.” Ruby did her best to act natural, but she was having great difficulty processing her thoughts as she awkwardly attempted to asked Penny out.

“Nothing would make me happier! Oh Ruby, this is the most wonderful thing I could’ve ever asked for! Thank you thank you thank you!” Penny had gripped Ruby in a hug, squeezing the girl as tight as she could, before placing her back down. “Could we perhaps share in one final kiss before we part ways for the evening?”

“Uhh yeah, totally!” Without further hesitation, as if this was something entirely natural to the couple now, the pair wrapped their arms around one another and placed a gentle kiss on the others lips. Penny stepped away, once more bobbing with excitement, before providing a small curtsy to Ruby.

“Ruby Rose, thank you for the most amazing night I’ve ever experienced. I am excited for future activities we might partake in as a couple moving forward, and hope the remainder of your night continues to be spectacular!” Standing tall, Penny watched as Ruby opened the door to the RWBY dorm, and glancing in she could see it was surprisingly empty.

“Me too Penny. I hope you have a great sleep or recharging period, you know, however you spend your nights!” The pair shared in a giggle as Ruby stepped through the threshold of the door, and the two lost sight of each other as the door closed behind her.

As Ruby looked around the empty dorm, she couldn’t help but briefly wonder where the rest of her team was, though another part of her was thankful that she could have this moment alone to process the night. In a flurry of petals she flew upwards to her bunk, wrapping her arms around her pillow and clutching it tight. She rolled around in the bed, smiling so hard that her cheeks hard started to hurt, and in a burst of excitement she let out a scream into the pillow. 

Pulling the rose from its place at her waist, staring lovingly down at the petals, Ruby couldn't help but repeat a most joyous fact to herself. That despite all the uncertainty their group faced, there was one truth that she was now clinging onto tighter than anything else: the fact that she was now dating Penny Polendina, and that she couldn't be happier. 


End file.
